Sirius Drive Project

The sirius drive series was a project by Terran Orbital Construction to develop a modular drive section for a new series of civilian starships. The idea was that different ship classes would have essentially the same main energy reactor and drive section, which would greatly simplify maintenance and future retrofitting, as well as standardising replacement parts. The project was pitched to the Allied Systems Federation ministry of Traffic and Trade in 2281, and received praise and Federation subsidy.

After various prototypes, the eventual first commerically succesful model would be known as the Sirius MK3 drive section. Two civilian ship classes were designed with this drive, the Alexandria class and the Fleming class.

The initial launch in 2293 was a succes, and the two classes became popular with nomadic families, merchants, and private companies. After this initial succes, another ship with the Sirius MK3 would be designed and produced, the Varanasi class. This ship would focus more on auxilary small craft with its extensive hangar system than its predecessors.

During the early 2310's, it was clear that the project had been a succes. The three classes of civilian cruiser were popular on the market and its generalised maintenance program worked to simplify matters for civilian contracters. As a result, a new freighter design that used the Sirius drive was published and produced: the Demirel class. This new type of freighter could carry less freight than its comtempories, but the Sirius drive made it a lot cheaper for mass production and maintenance.

Several priviliged Ancilican and Borian families were not satisfied with the specifics of the Alexandria or the Fleming, but supported the idea of standardised (and cheaper) starship drives. They banded together and ordered the Aurora Drive Yards to produce a larger and more luxurious vessel that was compatible with the Sirius project. Through various means of corporate espionage and bargaining, ADY acquired the blueprints of the Sirius project. After various upgrades and extensions, the Sirius MK4 drive was developed by ADY. The luxurious ship that the Ancilican and Borian families requested resulted in the Dyson class civilian cruiser. The Dyson class pushed the limits of what was possible from the Sirius single energy reactor. As such, the Dyson was not a very fast ship. It made up for this with its sizeable hangar deck and its vast amount of interior space.

The priviliged families were happy, but Terran Orbital Construction was not. TOC lawyerd up and went to court and accused ADY of corporate espionage. After various years of court hearings, TOC eventually won the case and claimed the rights to the Sirius MK4 drive. However, ADY was still permitted to construct Dyson class ships given that they would pay TOC for every ship sold.

To outshine the Dyson class, Terran Orbital Construction developed the Cirdotos class. The Cirdotos had slightly less interior space than the Dyson, but its hangar deck was much larger. Furthermore, the Cirdotos had the ability to land and take off from planetary surfaces. This feature was unique at the time and was later replicated in the Hercules class during the Vrox Rampage.

The Sirius project continued to cause a lot of rivalry between Terran Orbital Construction and the Aurora Drive Yards after the end of the Vrox Rampage. This rivalry was quite beneficial for the civilian and governmental contractors that bought ships of the ship classes equipped with Sirius drives, as the prices for these ships and their replacement parts stayed low in price wars and design races.