Discovery Gaming Community - Battleship Siege Turret RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav"

»» Engineering Report: RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret

An incredibly heavy, unwieldy weapon, this turret is Rheinland's answer to the problem of heavily fortified stations. It is a true siege weapon, useless against any moving target, but its ability to tear down fortifications is unparalleled even by the heavy Cerberus type. Some say it was designed for a Liberty invasion which never materialized, but whatever its purpose, it was never used, and few exist today

»» Name: Engº. Karl Furlain
»» Team: Green
»» Rank: Project Lead
»» Authorized by: Dr. Jack Frakes
»» Location: Secret Valley Workshop - Engineering Workshop Compartment A / New London - Bretonia

»» Summary

We have constructed multiple items of the type RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. They are now available for sale.

»» Detailed Report

Chief Commerce Manager Patricia Kelpo recently added blueprints to the workshop database in a file named RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. Apparently she bought these blueprints from some curacaoan guy she met during a delivery run to a Zoner base in the Omicrons. I was tasked to check the blueprints on their accuracy and quality and was able to confirm that they are indeed of excellent quality. As a result of that, Negra ordered the production of two of these items for commercial purposes.

Phase One of the new project was all about adjusting our fabricators in the engineering to meet the required standards specified in the documentation attached to the blueprint files. It appears that the person we purchased the technology from installed a mobile fabrication module to create these rather big items in the cargo bay of a capital ship. Our own workshop was quickly adjusted to replicate the environment specified there. In the meantime, the logistics took care of gathering all the required materials to begin with the production. A majority of the required resources were already in our cargo section and just had to be transfered to the workshop. This was done within a single day.

Phase Two was all about the fabrication of the required components from raw materials. While pre-fabbed components like Optronic Arrays from Kishiro Technologies in Honshu were easily prepared to be integrated as turret-internal targeting system, the specific fabrication of other parts were necessary, as for example the heat transfer relays, kinetic buffers, reinforced guidance focuses and energy transmitters. Another challenge was the construction of the chassis, because of the logistical effort. The RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. is, as previously mentioned, a very large object. I'll spare you the numbers, as you will find them on the blueprints, but give more comprehensive comparison: The RBT-1000 is almost twice as long a medium-sized snub vessel and up to 1.5 times as wide. The materials used for the construct make it ten times as massive as a Sabre-class snub vessel.

The assembly of the item was a challenge as that once we did that, we realized we had no means to get it out of the workshop. The documentation mentioned that, and because of the hilarious size, the people we got the blueprints from assembled it in the cargo bay - to be able to directly deploy it, move it via tractor beam to the location the turret is supposed to be mounted on and then mount it in space with the assistance of either a shipyard or a remote controlled assembly vessel. The documentary mentioned here a modified Gitano-class Light Fighter, for example. We had to disassemble the item again, which took more time than effort. The good aspect of the RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. is the fact that it is meant to be rather easy to maintain - because it will require a lot of maintenance as a result of the RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret energy created by the projectile launch.

Phase Three began with the assembly of the RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. on our station itself. Usually weapon tests are performed in designated weapon test sites. However, we are lacking... a capital ship to mount capital weapons on for testing purposes. The effort of doing this was slightly higher than with any energy-based weapon as we were required to replicate a physical reloading system, replace it with the energy transfer system of our turret socket and do a few tests with dummies. In the meantime, the engineering workshop produced 50 rounds of RBT-1000 explosive shells. Just enough for the test runs.

Our testing targets were some of the bigger asteroids close to our station, in 2000M distance. RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. is supposed to work as artillery weapon with an effective combat range 3000M against moving targets and even more against stationary targets. While the laws of physics still apply to the physical objects, meaning the object would technically travel at the same high speed for an indefinite amount of time until colliding with another object, the explosive part of the RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. shells causes the projectiles to explode once the maximum range has been reached. This is unavoidable and a result of the thermokinetic forces applied to the shell the moment it is launched into space. The thickness of the shell only delays the chemical reactions induced by high temperatures. In case this was not obvious at this point: RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. shells are to be kept away from heat sources to prevent a magazine breach. The RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. itself contains a powerful cooling system, just strong enough to keep the shells in the turret cool enough even when under fire.

The tests were showing the results we expected and our own replics of the RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret are pinpoint-accurate in terms of detailed replication according to the blueprints. After the tests were done, we disassembled the turret from the station and contained all components in Quick-Deployment-Crates (QDCs), which were also described in the documentation, specifically desgined by a very clever engineer named Leon Isley.

With all tests completed successfully, we continued with our production for a second RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. and ammunition. At this point, we have two RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. QDCs and four RBT-1000 "Schwerer Gustav" Battleship Siege Turret. Ammunition QDCs in our storage module. They are sealed and can be sold anytime.

This concludes my report.

Karl Furlain
RBT-1000 Project Lead, Engineering Team Yellow, Secret Valley Workshop