E1MS — Ship Blog — Beyond the Spozak

The Imperial Saucer was the personal flagship and space-faring palace of the Emperor of the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns. Initially the Emperor's ship had been a long, leaf-shaped craft along the lines of most imperial capitol ships, but after the rise of Gronnic Polymancy, was redesigned into its iconic saucer-shape, laden with Gronnic symbolism.

Capabilities

The Imperial Saucer was the size of a large city, housing all the necessities and luxuries an Emperor could desire while traversing an enormous realm.

While the saucer its self was unarmed, it was one of the few ships in the imperial fleet to make use of both barrier shields and spatial compression technology (with a compression ratio of 500:1, it was also one of the fastest ships in the Empire). Also, the underside of its hull was dominated by a single large star-gate leading to the fortress world Fnarlang Belann, where a fully armed and ready fleet of warships waited on constant alert to come to the Emperor's aid.

Cultural Significance

In addition to being an immediate symbol of the Emperor's power, where countless subjects would come seeking favor whenever it came near an inhabited world or station, it was also a cultural center in its own right. The Imperial Saucer housed several of the holiest shrines in Gronnic Polymancy, and had a thriving arts and culture scene created primarily for the entertainment of the imperial court.

Among the waste disposal castes (primarily Greys, and Cielioid Greys), the Imperial Saucer held a special cachet as the source of the highest grades of waste. In fact, the Imperial Saucer was held in such high regard by the Greys that when the Convergence broke away from the Empire, it was the whole inspiration for all of their saucer-shaped spacecraft.

The "Seed-pod" is the most common ship in the navy of the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns. It initially went into production in the early days of the empire, well before the 1,000 Years war, and saw service throughout the empire's history. The simple design and low cost of the Seed-pod were key to its popularity and longevity as a design.

Pictured: the version of the Seed-pod in widest use late in Era-0, through early Era-1.

The economics of the Seed-pod, and its wide-spread use caused it to be continually modified into thousands of variants, including substantial civilian use as a single-passenger transport. In the Empire's continual contact and conflicts with the breakaway states and the Nomad Armies, the design of the Seed-pod was copied and stolen many times, making it the most common fighter-craft in the galaxy before Era-2.

Internally, the design of the Seed-pod breaks down into three modular units, the cockpit unit takes up front of the craft, the center position is occupied by weapons, fuel, and special equipment, and the main engines are in the aft. Each of these sections were made in a variety of purpose-built variants in local factories throughout the empire.

The main variant of the Seed-pod was built as a short-range interceptor without FTL capability. High acceleration made it agile in dogfights, but the twin plasma-bolt throwers that made up its sole armament had little to offer in the way of firepower. Light armor and a lack of deflector shields made the survivability of a mission in a Seed-pod poor for most pilots. But, what it lacked in endurance, range, and firepower, the Seed-pod made up for in sheer numbers. Seed-pods were cheap and easy to manufacture, modify, and maintain, and this made them a mainstay of the Imperial Navy.

The Seed-pod saw substantial use in all of the Empire's major conflicts, usually swarming in overwhelming numbers to bog down and gradually destroy whatever they faced.

An imperial carrier prepares to launch a large flight of seed-pods.

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