Narkova Erethion-Class Experimental Cruiser

Behold, an very strange-looking and highly experimental star cruiser from Narkova Drive Yards.

Pic 1:

Front:

Top:

Rear:

Pic 5:

Really, this thing is serves no real purpose in the Narkovian Royal Navy yet. It's purely experimental in almost every aspect, and is currently one of a kind.

To begin with, the ship is almost entirely made of an upgraded version of Bantronex synthetic metal, which (as you previous LUCL members may remember) is a manufactured metallic material used extensively in the construction of Narkova ships. This new version is more akin to a synthetic fiber, strands of which are woven and folded together hundreds of times over at the molecular level and then chemically sealed tight. The resulting starship frame and hull are lighter* and stronger than standard Bantronex. This new material, dubbed "quantronex," shows great potential for future NRN starships, although it has not yet been tested under combat conditions.

*I know weight doesn't matter in space, but mass does. Less mass means slightly more maneuverability.

Next in the experiments come the sublight and FTL propulsion systems. The Erethion actually sports three different types of sublight engines, all brand new. The first is a bank of four MK I TriCeptalon plasma drives mounted to the rear of the main module of the ship. They are significantly smaller than the average plasma drive from narova Drive Yards, but provide twice the thrust and are 400% more energy efficient than said average NYD plasma drives. The downside is that the engine's thrust control systems are still relatively unreliable, a kink NYD is working on ironing out.

The second sublight drive system consists of two giant engine pods mounted to the sides of the main module. These are meant to provide quick bursts of high speed at the cost of a greater fuel intake (plasma drives run on compressed hydrogen gas).

The third system is actually a combination of plasma drive and advanced sensor array, fitted to the top rear of the ship. Resembling warp nacelles missing their Bussard collectors, this sublight drive is designed to provide maximum thrust without leaving a traceable ion trail through space. Exactly how it does this is classified information, but I can tell you that it is still in the preliminary testing stages without having to lock you up forever.

The FTL system is the most complicated experimental tech on board. It is an advanced Azgardian hyperdrive that has been handed over to NYD engineers. They have fiddled and tweaked it, finally coming up with the 139-A Erethion Hyperstar Subspace Propulsion System, Mark 1, for which the ship is named. The original Azgard hyperdrive could take a ship from a planet in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way (i.e., Earth) across intergalactic space to the Pegasus galaxy in three standard weeks. At maximum output, the 139-A ca do it in 11 standard days using 30% less total energy.

...

So, now that that's out of the way, here's the REAL story.

The Erethion-Class started out as a series of skyscrapers I designed as part of a Narkovian city I was going to build. However, even at microscale, my old and tired computer could not handle the sheer number of pieces in LDD. So, with a few modifications, I put the buildings on their sides, connected them together, and viola: the Erethion. The overall theme I was going for was one of odd, almost cartoonish strangeness that was still distinctly original, and I think I hit it.

An .lxf file should be live soon on the LEGO Gallery at lego.com.

Enjoy!

Those actually would make cool buildings.  Maybe to build Erethions, the Narkova designers simply used the building schematics and built them out of quantronex.

It is very interesting.  The pylons connecting the superstructures to the central hull reminds me a bit of the current Talmidon - specifically, all that extra armor and force fielding the guys here at Star Fleet needed to attach there before they could deem those pylons stiff enough....

The .lxf is now live at the LEGO gallery: http://www.us.lego.com/en-us/gallery/d531b484-1985-49c6-93f6-6a87a46cc708?index=6&categoryId=64929898-C52F-49D8-B106-C0C36314093C&from=24

Talmid: Thanks! Actually, that's pretty much what I did. I just took the buildings, put them on their sides, tweaked them a bit, and stuck 'em together.

Yep! The patterns on the sides are also cool.

WOW!!! That is so weird... but awesome! I can truthfully say that I have NEVER seen ANYTHING even REMOTELY similar to it! GREAT way to turn a "failed" project into a major success! I love your building style, it's bold, it's different, it's creative, it's skilled, but also imaginative and fun. Keep up the amazing work!

Dino: Thank you! I'll try!

Man, that would have been such a cool looking skyline... But what you've done is cool, too! I would not have thought of that, and the way you put them all together is so distinctive! I'm guessing that was a lot of fun to put together. I'm jealous!

That's what I thought, too. Alas for my weakling computer! Thank you! Actually, it was hard to decide what to put where, and I also had to create a support pylon that would let me connect the modules stud to stud. But other than, that, yeah, it was great fun! I really like how the blue and orange decals on the modules came out.