C-137-KJM orbital shipyard
| C-137-KJM orbital shipyard | |
|---|---|
| Type | Spacecraft |
| World of Origin | Detritus |
| Universe | Cytoverse |
“It was so big, my mind reeled to comprehend it. It was like the sky itself was falling. A sudden shower of hundreds of pieces of debris rained down, a blazing hail. And behind it, that something. That enormous, inconceivable something. ”
The C-137-KJM orbital shipyard is an old steel ship found in the ring of debris surrounding Detritus. It orbited the planet for several centuries before falling to the surface when the acclivity rings that held it afloat ran out of power.[1][2]
Appearance and Function
One of the shipyard's primary purposes is to manufacture starships, however, its other major functions are unknown. The shipyard is made of steel,[3] rectangular, and incredibly large. Spensa believes half the shipyard to be the size of a mountain, however, this may be exaggerated. The shipyard has, at some point, been broken into two halves leaving large gaping holes along its side. It likely does not have an AI computer system.[1]
“Those appear to be replicas made from pictures taken by pilots inside a real delver maze. They have no meaning that we’ve been able to interpret.”
—Description of the unknown writing that can be found in the shipyard, delver mazes, and the caverns of Detritus.[4]
The inside of the shipyard contains cranes and other construction equipment. Working emergency lights can still be found throughout the vessel, despite loss of power to other essential functions.[2] A delver training facility has been added to the vessel and may make up large portions of the ship, and be accessible from the manufacturing floors.[1][4] It shares similar aspects to delver maze tunnels, such as design and structure,[4] as well as a writing system made up of circular patterns that is unknown to the Defiant people.[2][4] Similar writings can also be found near the old machinery in the outer Defiant Caverns.[2]
The bottom of the shipyard is coated in hundreds of acclivity rings that keep it afloat. These rings begin running out of power in 8363 LD causing the shipyard to fall from the atmosphere as it could no longer correct its orbit. The loss of power in the acclivity rings is gradual, allowing the shipyard to fall at a steady pace instead of hurtling straight towards the ground.[1]
History
The origins of the shipyard are unknown and likely predate the arrival of the Defiants by centuries. At some point it was broken into two halves, though it is unknown when or how this occurred.[1]
The first half of the shipyard fell to the surface partway through Spensa's time as a cadet, when Skyward Flight was sent on a routine training exercise to tag chunks of debris. The Krell committed almost sixty ships,[5] a large number of their forces, to the attack, to ensure it crashed and to keep the DDF from being able to harvest it's acclivity rings.[1]
During the battle, Nedd's brothers, Nightstorm pilots six and seven, picked up Krell tails and in a desperate attempt to lose them, flew into the shipyard.[1] Nedd and Spensa followed the Nightstorm pilots into the ship, to try and destroy their Krell tails and help them escape.[2] Unable to catch up to the Nightstorm pilots, Spensa and Nedd fled the ship just before it reached the planet surface. Nedd's brothers tragically died in the crash.[2]
As the DDF troops retreated, the Krell began firing on the ship's acclivity rings, as well as setting explosive charges on the top of the vessel in order to increase its descent. The Krell continued to fire upon the ship after it had crashed to ensure that the DDF would be unable to salvage anything useful from the wreckage.[2] The DDF lost fourteen ships from the encounter at the shipyard and fewer than a dozen acclivity rings were salvageable from the wreckage.[5]
The second half of the shipyard was first spotted in the low atmosphere of the planet, by FM during a salvage run with Nightmare Flight, shortly before flight school graduation. Krell were seen scouting the ship, and unlike the first vessel, this half had enough power to activate the defense mechanisms of the shipyard, creating a hostile environment for the Krell.[6]
After the battle, the DDF sent a science ship to investigate and analyse the vessel, determining that the shipyard would run out of power and fall to the surface in a few days time.[7] In a desperate attempt to secure the acclivity rings, the DDF sent all active pilots to defend it from the Krell, believing that the enemy would try and destroy it.[3] Instead, the Krell used the shipyard as a ploy, sending a second wave of ships, including a lifebuster, to attack Alta Base while it was left undefended.[8] The DDF disengaged their fighters from the battle to try and defend Alta Base, leaving the shipyard to be, presumably, destroyed by the remaining Krell.[9]