EDS-37-92 Scorpio

The **EDS-37-92 Scorpio** is the largest capitol ship class in the CAST navy.

## Technical and Development History

An Extension is a piece of vehicle-like equipment designed for use with a
 Caseal. They come in many shapes and sizes, from the size of cars to
starships. All Extensions require but a single ‘pilot’ regardless of
size. Additional processors and helping programs allow the Caseal
utilizing to multi-task and manipulate the device as if it were its own
body.

At over 5 kilometers, the  EDS-37-92,  otherwise known as the
Scorpio-class Assault Carrier, is the largest vessel in the CAST navy.
 Each leviathan vessel is a recovered Precursor Design Seed brought back
 into existence. The exact method of replicating them is still being
worked on. Capable of carrying nearly two thousand extensions, the
Scorpio boasts a potent battlenet relay and multi-core assistant
processors to allow the sole controlling Caseal to synchronize and lead
an entire battleforce.

Some of the original design seeds feature the option to house the Causal
 Stampeder, a device on the fringes of science that can shut down faster
 than light travel for multiple star systems at a time. As of the battle
 of Veem, the CAST have also fielded a variant boasting a dreaded
supermassive neutrino weapon that is the bane of all sentient organic
life.

## Equipment and Design Features:

* **Wave Force Armor:** A defensive shield system that manipulates dark matter containment fields to deflect and distort hostile attacks. Intelligently used, the Scorpio can use it to catch and reflect attacks provided they do not overpower the field.
* **Object Control Grid:** A short-range teleportation grid extending about 25 kilometers. Specially equipped devices, like extensions, can teleport within or in between the local grids. This allows other extensions in the same system to rapidly redeploy to help one another, or deploy payloads near-instantaneously.

## Optional Equipment

* **1x Causal Stampeder:**  Included as an option in the original Scorpio design seed, the Causal Stampeder can be mounted by sacrificing the storage capacity of 700 mecha extensions. The device is effectively a pair of slipspace drives that collide their portals with one another, and have a device capable of slipspace transit move between them and slipspace at the same time. By doing so, the device effectively achieves infinite velocity between the two portals in both real space and slipspace. This creates a causal paradox of colossal proportions. The space-time brane is strained such that faster than light travel becomes impossible for parsecs around without reconciliation methods beyond the Caseal. It doesn’t so much stop FTL drives from working, rather, actions that cause casual disruptions such as FTL travel and teleportation are effectively frozen in time until space time recovers.

## Fixed Armament

* **1x Stellarite Lance:** The pinnacle of hard light technologies, this spinal weapon compresses hard light structures to create a sort of fusion with mass similar to a star. The light-mass is compressed and fired through immense gravity control fields, and detonates after a few seconds or upon collision with the target.
* **24x Double Barreled Repeating Hard Light Turrets- BB Class**: The primary armament of the Scorpio. An advanced form of laser cannon that uses a delayed reaction to convert laser to hard light while it is being fired. Thus, while the projectiles are low on mass, even when sheathing dark matter, the shots have high durability and possess near-lightspeed velocity, giving them high striking power.
* **64x Double Barreled Hard Light Turrets:** The same weapon as mounted on the Pugio. Flexible as CIWS or strike weapon.
* **1200x Variable Missile Launcher Bank:** Mounted on the sides of the ship, these launchers are able to configure and sort to allow the Gladius to deploy a variety of missile types as controller requires.  These can be configured as 2x5 Anti-Matter Missiles, 2x3 Dimensional Missiles, or 5x20 Twilight or Force Projection Missiles.
* 1**00x Light Higgs Particle Gun:** A short-range low-power mass manipulator weapon. While higgs weapons can cause high strain, this weapon has improved durability due to its low-grade performance. Intended as a CIWS, it is used primarily to cause enemy missiles to collapse on themselves. Enemy fighters and mecha are more resistant, requiring  careful aiming at vulnerable areas. However, the sheer number of them on the Scorpio allows them to be concentrated to deal damage even to small vessels.

## Missile Types

* **Anti-Matter Missile:** Using a very minute amount of anti-matter, this is a high-yield missile designed when there is little concern for collateral damage.

* **Dimensional Missile:** An invention of the CAST, the Dimensional Missile is an expensive missile that is a weaponized slipspace drive. It utilizes an unstable slipspace portal to scatter atoms between the normal universe and slipspace.
* **Force Projection Missile**: More of a high-speed drone that sports its own Object Control Grid. The Scorpio does not have traditional launch ramps or hangar doors. Rather, it merely teleports objects in or out of itself using its Object Control Grid. It uses the Force Projection Missile to cast a  50 meter grid at range to allow it to deploy its forces afar.
* **“Twilight” Multi-Function Missile:** Their main payload is a spray of hard light to soften up a target, before collapsing in a dark matter reaction that tries to drag the target with it. The missiles are highly maneuverable and able to be remotely controlled by the pilot. Their hard light projectors can also be used to make hardlight barriers to protect the extension or others.

## Optional Armaments

* **1x “Reaper” Supermassive Neutrino Burster:** A horrific weapon retrofitted onto the Scorpio, at the cost of about 1000 of its mecha storage capacity.  When activated, the Reaper release a burst of cross-phased supermassive neutrinos.The burst possesses a harmonic frequency, which can be tuned to destroy the nervous system of any macroscopic organism that possesses one, even one as rudimentary as a notochord. Simpler life forms that do not possess a neural system, such as microbes, fungi, algae, mosses, and traditional plants are unaffected. When the weapon is fired, vacuum energy is siphoned from local space-time to near-depletion. The radiation is propelled at superluminal speeds and will eventually propagate at a near-infinite velocity, though the weapon can be turned to only cover thousands of kilometers. This was known to generate causal paradoxes when fired. As synthetic beings, the Caseal do not fear the weapon.

## Trivia

* The Scorpio was originally called the Sovereign, before being changed to a more uniform naming convention.