FRG Thor

With the resources gathered from the destroyed Gundabadt Station by SVG Excavator, I began construction on my biggest build to date - my first frigate, FRG Thor.

Early build of FRG Thor showing armour, basic fuselage nose rocket launcher and some computer systems installed.

She was planned to build on what I had learned about missiles from my turret building, by multiplied many times over.  I discovered that by altering the composition and layout of missile systems that I could fire massively powerful rockets at a target and inflict considerable damage.

Thor, therefore, would house the single biggest rocket launcher I had ever seen.

But not only would she be a rocket frigate, she would also boast some impressive shielding, radar jamming, and be supported by side, rear, upward and downward firing homing missile bays as auxilliary weapons.  In addition to all this I intended to build some very small missile-killer turrets... although I was concerned that I may not be able to program them to differentiate between my missiles and those of the enemy which would be pretty useless to me... worst case I would outfit them to be EMP weapons instead.

Although Thor would be completed automated, I was building her to also operate with a crew and serve the needs of human passengers.

When focusing on building a particular section, I place work lights so that I can easily see what I'm working on.

The work lights make all the difference to a dark or shaded hull.

The rocket launcher installed into Thor's nose measures 38m from nose to core room, and consists of 16 columns feeding into the final chamber, and costs 444750e to fire, doing 44750 damage over a 12 meter radius up to 3.2km from target.

View from Thor's incomplete rear through what will be the engines, crew facilities, support modules, escape bays, bridge, power storage, and core.  Visible in the nose section of the fuselage is the mostly completed front systems, detailed in the below images.

Forward of the Core (the top of which is visible at the bottom of the image) are 9 5x5x5 power/shield combination generators, granting a total power output of 90058.4e/sec recharge, shield cap of 18809 (+643s/sec).  Further shields will be added to the frigate.

The lower three decks of the cone will be entirely energy storage, granting an estimated 1.3 million energy storage, allowing Thor to fire her energy-hungry cannons several times before depleting her energy reserves.

Deck 4 is a missile systems inspection and engineering deck.  Full access to the entire length of the missile systems is on this deck, plus supporting systems like haudraulics and computers.  Some systems still need to be installed.

Deck 5 is to inspect the lower part of the Combination Generators and the systems linking the generators with the missile systems.

Deck 5 inspects the upper part of the Combination Generators and also accesses much of the super structure holding it all together.  Again some systems still need to be installed, mostly between the deck and pressure hull.

Deck 6 looking back towards the nose.  At the nose end are most of the computer systems driving the link between the Combination Generators, and it is also possible to watch a rocket for a split second as it fires out from beneath your feet towards a target... although it passes out of view very fast as you're basically looking down at the muzzle.

Deck 7 is not really a deck but more of a series of crawl spaces.  This deck will allow close-inspection and repair of critical systems and will be the perfect place for a Xenomorph to set up camp.  Currently it's open and unpopulated. This image shows the view from the bow to the stern, with much of this gap being filled with goodies in the coming days.

While the Core is functional, it is still under construction.  It must wait for all other critical systems to be installed before it can be finalised.

Above the Core and towards the stern, at the top of the frigate is where the Bridge will be.  Above that will be an observation deck (completed), which will be sealed behind a blast door to protect the bridge in case the observation deck becomes damaged and loses pressure.  This image shows the view upwards into the ramp leading to the observation deck from what will be the Bridge.

View back down the ramp of the Observation Deck back towards the yet-to-be-built Bridge.  The Core can be seen, which is basically at the center of the frigate.

View from the gangway in the Observation Deck, looking forward and slightly to port.

Observation Deck as seen from outside, with stern shown to the left of image.  Behind the Obs Deck can be seen the Officer's Escape Boat assembly.  This is designed to accomodate the full compliment of officers on the Bridge, and be accessed rapidly in the event of an emergency, and jettison straight upwards from the rear of the frigate and away.  Other crew have different (and closer to them) escape boats located elsewhere on the frigate.

My little collection of ships is growing.  Note: Gustav never got rebuilt after pirates decimated my base so long ago... although I do still have the plans for her if ever I want a small battle scout again.

Shipyard with FRG Thor under construction and SVG Speeder (and her homing missile turrets) acting as an outward turret emplacement during the built. My basic factory is shown on the right attached to the shipyard, busilly producing paint and converting minerals into capsules, among other things.

FRG Thor's internal computers and systems are visible and accessible from outside (which serves a purpose) but protected from attack by her shields and automated close-quarters defenses, and mostly tucked behind gauss mesh which when on active duty will have 40,000 volts passing through it at all times.

FRG Thor at about the halfway point in production.

Although Thor's armour and hull are in place, she still needs to have her Omni-direction Missile Defense System installed, as well as a bunch of blast doors and greeble and such.  She also needs all crew compartments and operational systems fitted in the center and wings, and her thrusters and other critical and support systems installed in the aft.

I expect Thor to be quite a powerful little boat once completed... and I look forward to hunting down more pirate stations and expanding my little patch of space.