ARC-1AC34 Gibson

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Though not as advanced as Federation ships in certain respects ARC ships do have some systems that rival them. ARC technology does have the edge on that of the Authority Navy, however, plus one unique advantage: ARC vessels do not require artificial gravity and do not design for it. Since all ARC crew are modified, usually with cybernetics, for extended microgravity the lack of grav has no impact on operations. This lack of mass dedicated to spin systems is a major engineering advantage, resulting in the use of spin decks or grav trains only when it serves a purpose: usually on industrial, medical or research ships where gravity can be an asset and on the jump tenders.

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After the lessons learned from Martian independence no human power engineers any critical system, let alone military ships, open to network hacks. It is possible to hack via good old social engineering or other espionage, but illicit access at range and software-reliant systems (without robust firmware defaults and overrides) are unheard of for good reason. ARC does, however, have a large proportion of augments in its population and total micro-g naval operations results a policy of free or mandatory augmentation. So ARC ships are engineered with a large number of augment terminals and gain the many advantages possible while limiting the possible downsides through experience and elegant design. Anyone dealing with ARC forces can expect to face the full capabilities, plans and scrutiny of advanced corporate minds.

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Gibson class ships are carriers, operating in a carrier group with its tenders, cruisers and boats like the Federation. However it mounts the fusion drive for the group and the tender relies on gamma eye power, perhaps due to lower grade sources of cobalt to power high grade eyes. The shadow shielded fusion engine and part of the radiator array are on a retractable boom which allows it to fit in a jump field when pulled in. The Galaxia does have gamma eye cores but does not rely on them exclusively. It also relies on ordinance rather than a mix of lasers and ordinance like the Federation and Solar Authority. Laser cruisers are carried but the carrier group load out is ordinance heavy.

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A notable advancement of the Gibson concept are the port and starboard dorsal skimmer ship docks. The skimmers are designed to fly into the upper atmosphere of gas giants or smaller planets and harvest gasses. The gasses are then brought back to the carrier for processing. Processing plants on the Gibson separate and store gasses, also purifying water from mined ice, splitting water for oxygen and hydrogen and extracting deuterium from any of the feedstocks. Hydrogen harvested is excellent reaction mass for the main engine and the fusion reactor is deuterium-deuterium so gas giants provide unlimited fuel. When docked the skimmers provide a layer of defense for the central forward hull and composite thrust - their main thrusters can fire with the carriers. In case of battle they often stay docked, better to loose the skimmer or a docking point than to loose the carrier.

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The retractable reactor only operates under strict protocol. Crew are limited to radiation safe areas of their ships in case debris or a passing object backscatters neutron flux toward the ship. The flux is so strong that biological tissue exposed to a strong backscatter could receive a lethal dose in minutes or less. The majority of crew areas are central and quite safe, especially if the skimmer is docked. It is the scramble crews on docked ships, which are kept to a minimum, that are most at risk. A team of dedicated safety officer monitor reactor-on operations at all times.

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The Gibson uses some advanced structural elements made with self-healing bio-nano technology. Dr. Martha Freema, inventor of these advanced systems, carefully balanced the use of standard macro-technology and bio-nano. The result is a payload mass better than even the new Aldrin class Federation carrier and significant self-healing capability.

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A potentially major downside of the Gibson is its clever variable jump geometry. To fit in the Alcubiere field of a tender it needs to have its drive section and radiators stowed. A jump with deployed hardware not only shears off the hardware outside of the field envelope but also stresses the jump drive - with unpredictable and potentially dangerous results. The main reactor would also be sheared off, leaving the ship on composite and chemical thrust only. Deploying is fast at one minute, stowing is slower at two minutes. This is a drawback shared by the new Novogord class that uses an even slower but ejectable variable geometry. Federation tended ships have weapon extensions are quick in or out, so generally don't share this flaw as they can dock or undock while configuring weapons. Novgorod and Gibson must both perform the docking and geometry configuration in serial order not in parallel with dock / undock.

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## Related Ships

**Agyeman-M Class Cruiser:** Built in a joint civilian project between ARC and several Federation corporations the spaceframe of the Agyeman class is highly modular and extremely lightwiegh. The type M is, to certain extent, self-healing. ARC has equipped thjs exclusive variant with military modules as their newest cruiser. This class can even adapt serveral varieties of grav car, including the newest Federation models, as standard modules. Soval Shipyards on Europa is a true mass manufacturing center for these impressive vessels. Dr. Martha Freema, one of the best integrators in ARC, developed the self-healing materials used in the Type M which are ARC bio-nano. The nano-hives are black boxed in case of capture.

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The Type-M is used almost exclusively with the Gibson as it significantly lowers the payload mass required for supporting the cruisers. Less mass allocation for support gear and consumables is more ordinance on board because every gram counts.

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**Piper Class Reactor Pod:** This is a self-contained fission power system, including the shadow shield water tank. A collaboration between Dr. Billie Tyler ADx and and Professor Rose Eccleston has resulted in a class leading mobile reactor.

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## Pods and Robots

Robotics is where ARC excells, despite being slightly behind the Federation curve it is a robotics corporation. The two powers also have active trade, so the robotics and pods (just big robots that carry people in the ARC view) are roughly equivalent. There are a few things ARC has:

**Sim-Grav Over Harness (S-GOH) -** This adaptive harness fits over many styles of duty suits and works with various styles of magnetic boots. It is a soft robot, using pressure and polymer muscles fibres to hold the wearer in the mag boots as if there were gravity. It requires a sophisticated manifold and processor but ARC has a sleek and effective design. It simulates gravity and even provides layers of extra protection. It lets you go if damaged and it mostly works. Its not as good as being in gravity, but it is relatively comfortable and helps keep an organic body healthy in micrograv.

**Snakes (Model EA8704977)** - Like the Federation's Hexos, in fact compatible with them, but with far longer, much faster and somewhat stronger arms. The capability of these machines allows many operations to proceed faster for ARC ships and they are better at "throwing shield plates" or "casting sand" to block incoming fire or ordinance. The superb engineering of these robots is black-boxed... attempts to access them without the correct physical key will fuse the arms. Yet, the security measures can tell the difference between damage and unauthorized access. Many examples have been acquired by the other powers but the engineering cannot be copied with known techniques. In fact, this sort of security system was a chance discovery based on precursor technology so it may be some time before emulation by other powers. They are just called snakes by any non-augment, as their hexadecimal model number is EA8704977.

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**Archangel Exoframe:** Similar in design to the Solar Navy's Komarov battlepods, these are different in a major way: they are only usable by pilots with specific cybernetic control links and accomodate a single pilot only. They are more sophisticated than Komarov types and despite being smaller are approximately as effective in battle. They do not have the capacity for extra crew and have life support for between 20 and 90 days depending on the other cybernetic enhancements of the pilot.

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