Fleet Makeup

Style Overview

• Primary distinguishing color ranges:

For military ships, scarlets and purples and burgundy over gray. For civilian, creams, ivory, and soft, faded pink over gray. It should be trivial to tell at a glance if a Rlaan ship is armed or not, just by coloration.

Radiator fins tend to be more blue-gray.

• Common accent colors:

Many shades of gray and charcoal, dark brown, blue, never white.

• Primary lighting color:

Various shades of red - different shades even on the same ship.

• Frequently visible:

Enormous fin-like radiators supported on spiny projections, dotted with shield/drive emitters

Disproportionately large, bulbous reactor housings

Vertical axis (there is a clear top-bottom axis, although top and bottom may be symmetrical)

360 degree equatorial sensor orientation (sensors are often deployed around the equator of the ship and tend to have full 360 degree coverage)

Exterior hull surface covered with a sprayed-on resin to seal up ship, giving organic, scarred-skin look to exterior

Curving surfaces

Mild horizontal asymmetry

Muted front-back definition

Drone launchers

Energy weapons (gravitics, but also EM)

Patterns embossed on hull

• Rarely visible:

Thrusters of any kind.

Rlaan do not use missiles.

Ammunition based weaponry

Boxy design - curves are much preferred

• Seen inside, but not out:

Clearly manufactured armor components, metals, ceramics, etc. (they're normally hidden under the external resin coating, but would be exposed with damage)

• Moving parts(non-turret):

Blister-like doors and radial launch portals

• Capital vs. light craft:

      • Light craft:
      • The unique nature of the Rlaan drive system means that the acceleration gap between their light craft and large craft is much smaller than for other groups. It also means that the maximum acceleration their light craft can muster is also much smaller than for other groups. Furthermore, it allows for greater tolerance of mass asymmetry, leading to light-craft being somewhat stranger constructions for the Rlaan than for others.
      • In Rlaan light craft, the reactor is usually the largest discernible component of the ship, save for the radiator fins, which may shadow many of the other components. In the small-craft engagements, the Rlaan tend to try to make up for the shortcomings of their strike craft with numbers. Weaponry and sensors are both deployed on or near the equator, which has the broadest angles not interrupted by their own radiator fins. As their drives cannot achieve very high accelerations, there is little motivation for the Rlaan to build extremely small strike craft in order to eek out extra acceleration.
      • Surface features of large Rlaan vessels
      • Almost all larger military vessels have at least one drone port. While there is still a strong emphasis on equatorial sensors, the scale of the ship means that there will also be sensor bands running at higher and lower latitudes. Proportionately, the surface area devoted to radiator fins drops compared to small craft, as portions of the hull itself become radiators of various efficiencies. The easy definition of components visible on small craft, with their prominent, bulbous reactor housings, is lost on large Rlaan vessels. They seem to be composed of numerous curved shapes melded and glued together, hiding their internals. Snaking access tunnels, some of which seem to go almost all the way through some larger vessels, add further to the guessing game as to where the ship's most vital systems are actually located. Front and back tend to be less well defined. Weapons will tend to be fairly evenly distributed in bands around the ship, although the ships themselves are neither spherical nor even radially symmetric in vertical cross section. Weapons are rarely spinal mounts, and are frequently turreted. Point defense clusters cover the entirety of approach angles like asymmetrically sprouting warty growths. Civilian ships, it should be noted, are not only unarmed with offensive weaponry, but they do not have point defense either. They are quite helpless without an escort, but tend to be very heavily armored.
      • Small things found on the hull of a (large) Rlaan vessel
        • Foot grips
        • Fire-hydrant+hose (coiled) fixtures for spraying down emergency patching material (via EVA)
        • Pop-up sprinklers for spraying down emergency patching material (via automation)
        • Lighting fixtures (especially around the EVA repair hoses)
      • Somewhat larger things found on the hull of a large Rlaan vessel:
    • Large sensor clusters (prominently jutting out from hull, clearly of different material)
    • Optical pickups/cameras/etc, usually in horizontal stripes
    • Escape pod launcher ports

Yet larger things ... :

• Pinnace/lander launch bay (non-carrier vessels)

• Large, short, curving tubes leading to docking bay doors (single shuttle sized for non-carriers)

Listing of (active duty) Rlaan vessels:

Human-applied naming scheme: Chinese Emperors.

    • Aidi (In-system passenger puddle-jumper, civilian, very old design)
    • Andi (Orbital/suborbital cargo transport, civilian)
    • Chengdi (Post beachhead lander, military, orbit<-> ground only)
    • Chengzong (Salvage craft, civilian)
    • Chongdi (Cargo shuttle, civilian)
    • Chudi (Resupply ship, civilian crewed)
    • Daizong (Flight tender, frigate, methane atmosphere, military)
    • Dezong (Battleship)
    • Duanzong ( Mobile orbital sniper platform)
    • Duzong (Occupation vessel and troopship, carrier for dropships, landers, not fighters)
    • Feidi (Dropship)
    • Gaodi ( Forcible Compliance Planetary Drone Craft, atmosphere-only)
    • Gaozong ( Long range sensor drone)
    • Gaozu (Destroyer-equivalent hull, flight tender, Chlorine atmosphere, for Saahasayaay craft- crewed by Rlaan)
    • Gondi (Rlaan Colonization vessel, civilian)
    • Gongti (Client Colonization vessel (Oxygen atmosphere), civilian )
    • Guangzong (Repair and maintenance craft, corvette-equivalent hull, civilian)
    • Han (Exploration vessel, civilian)
    • [Janissary assault strike craft exclusively flown by Saahasayaay, different naming scheme, design]
    • Ruizong (Destroyer-analog, capital escort )
    • Shangdi (Bulk transport, civilian, comparable to Merchant Elephant or Aeran Zeuxidamus)
    • Shenzong (Cargo container mover, civilian)
    • Shizong (Police strike craft, light, Enforcers)
    • Shizu (Armed reconnaissance, EW platform, "interceptor")
    • Shundi (Cruiser)
    • Taizong (Strike craft, assault)
    • Taizu (Methane breather heavy cargo shuttle, civilian)
    • Wendi (Prisoner transport, military/Enforcer)
    • Wudi (Ship impound transport, civilian)
    • Xianzong (Mining craft)
    • Xiaozong (Frigate, system patrol)
    • Xizong (Oxygen breather heavy cargo shuttle, civilian)
    • Xuande (Light passenger transport, civilian)
    • Xuanzong (Gas miner, civilian)
    • Yindi (SWAT corvette, Enforcers)
    • Zhaozong (Police strike craft, heavy)
    • Zhezong (Mass passenger liner, civilian)
    • Zhuangzong (Mass production superiority fighter)