Emissary

SDCN Emissary
Registry		HCR-146
Class		Ambassador-class
Ship Type		Expeditionary heavy cruiser
Affiliation		Sol Defence Corps
Commissioning date		2112
Status		Active
Crew complement		352

The SDCN Emissary (registry HCR-146) is an Ambassador-class heavy cruiser in service with the Sol Defence Corps as a flagship of the Final Frontier Project.

Constructed in partnership with the AXIOM Corporation and numerous other sponsors, the ship features the latest technologies and features available to the United Nations. The ship itself is designed for long-term habitation, and as a result is built rather luxuriously, featuring plenty of amenities as well as clean and lavish design to appeal to the senses, while simultaneously still being functional at its duties. It boasts many amenities, including a gymnasium, pool, recreation room, two bars and lounges, and a library. Its construction features carpeted floors, padded walls, and a spacious interior optimized for extended living away from home.

As one of the flagships of the Final Frontier Project, the Emissary is designed for exploration and scientific research duties, being equipped with a state-of-the-art laboratory complex as well as a bleeding-edge FTL drive and lumicom array. As of 2117, the Emissary is currently deployed to Avalon as part of an extended research mission to survey its anomalies and chart its surface.

History

For over five years, the Escapade-class of ships, the first being the SDCX Escapade, were at the forefront of the Final Frontier Project's exploratory wing. However, the ships proved to be lacking in space and were not particularly known for their reliability, something which could prove certainly fatal in the vast distances the Escapade-class operated from Earth. Before the class's retirement, the FFP sought to draft new designs for dedicated exploratory ships that would be larger, faster, and more well-equipped than their predecessors.

The Ambassador-class was built to provide a multi-month and even multi-year interstellar expeditionary capability for the FFP, able to travel interstellar distances far in excess of any previously constructed spacecraft. In addition to the Ambassador-class cruisers, smaller Polaris-class frigates would be constructed for the Project as well, designed for research and exploration in much the same manner. In the end, two cruisers were ordered, the SDCN Ambassador (HCR-145) and Emissary (HCR-146). At the same time, the SDC's Odysseus Fleet was chosen to command the FFP vessels given their expeditionary and remote operating nature, birthing a new sub-department within the sector command and creating a unique organizational structure.

In exchange for priority access to FFP scientific and research releases, a group of corporate sponsors including the AXIOM Corporation, Gansai Industries and several other smaller companies agreed to fund a majority of the Emissary's construction work. AXIOM's own shipyard, Stratford Shipyards, was contracted to build the Ambassador and Emissary. Construction of the ships was completed in 2111 and, following a series of both rigorous testing and bureaucratic delays, both were commissioned in December 2112. Ambassador was commissioned four days after Emissary, the latter being brought into service on December 25 and Ambassador on December 29.

Layout

The Emissary is divided into five decks from 0-4, each deck having a primary function. They are connected by the central staircase.

Technology

Power Plant and Propulsion

Main article: Emissary/Reactor

The Emissary is powered at its core by a magnetized target fusion (MTF) reactor producing up to 10 gigawatts of energy, an output capable of powering over 900,000 homes. During transit, the reactor's energy is funneled through magnetized piping and accelerated out the ship's three main engines. Both the reactor's output and the engine's configuration can be configured to either prioritize specific impulse (efficiency) or thrust power.

Deuterium-tritium fuel plasma is injected into the reactor, where powerful electromagnets compress the plasma into an extremely small volume about 50cm in diameter, drastically increasing its mass and temperature. At this stage, immense amounts of fusion occur due to the superheated nature of the plasma as well as its confined nature. During this stage, immense amounts of neutrons and alpha radiation are released during the fusion reactions. These alpha particles can be captured by the reactor's electrode array and directly converted into useable electricity.

When the reactor is used for thrust, only a small amount of power is captured by the electrode array. Instead, the plasma is compressed to undergo fusion. The plasma, under immense pressure, is then immediately expelled out through a network of magnetized pipes to the thrusters, where they are discharged into space to propel the ship forward.

The reactor is fuelled primarily by 2:1 mixture of deuterium and tritium gas. During fusion, pellets of a lithium-6/beryllium alloy are magnetically injected into the reactor, vaporizing the pellets. Neutron radiation emitted by the reactor is multiplied by the beryllium and captured by lithium-6 to produce additional tritium fuel. Supplementary hydrogen is also injected into the reactor from the ship's intakes, which passively collect hydrogen from surrounding space.

Auxiliary Power Units

Auxiliary hydrogen fuel cells, acting as the auxiliary power units (APUs), can also be employed to convert hydrogen and oxygen into useable power, in the event that the reactor fails. These use electrolysis cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing large amounts of electricity that can be used in the ship's grid.

Manoeuvre Propulsion

To achieve precision and/or low-power manoeuvres, the Emissary uses an extensive reaction control system (RCS) thruster array, spread into quad blocks along the ship's hull to provide the most control efficiency and carefully controlled by either the Emissary's autopilot or fly-by-wire bridge commands. These conventional rocket thrusters are powered by a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen bipropellant; older than the more powerful and storable ethylene/nitrous oxide bipropellants commonly used in the Sol system, hydrolox is easier to synthesize from common ice found in space, and is still used on interstellar vessels.

FTL Drive

Main article: FTL

The Emissary is equipped with a Type-33 Alcubierre FTL drive. Under normal conditions, its maximum safe operating power is 250c (250 times lightspeed). While it can go up to this maximum without strain, it typically cruises between 100-200c to allow the reactor to power other important systems instead. The drive can be powered up for either interstellar travel, where it can go up to maximum speed, or in-system travel, where it is typically used at only 1-5c.

The FTL drive works by encasing the ship in a "warp field" that does not accelerate. Instead, the bubble contracts spacetime at the front of the ship while expanding spacetime behind it, moving the ship throughout space. The warp field is incapable of moving significant quantities of matter outside the ship and will collapse harmlessly if it attempts to do so, such as when the ship is in atmosphere or in close proximity to another object such as a ship or celestial body.

Gravity Generator

The Emissary's FTL drive can additionally act as a gravity generator, using exotic matter to produce a graviton field that is profile-matched exactly to the ship using the same kind of space-time warping as the FTL drive. The direction of the gravity is based off the orientation of the ship and is locked to the "down" direction of the ship. It exerts a force "downward" at 9.807 m/s². The field is editable and can be changed to include things outside the ship in the Sphere of Influence (SOI), or increase gravity in specific areas of the ship. It can also be completely disabled. In extreme situations, it has been recorded that the ship can "throw" its gravitational field outside the ship and increase it by orders of magnitude to block incoming munitions. This is generally an unsafe practice to ship and crew and is not advised.

Atmospherics & Life Support

The Emissary possesses a full closed-cycle life support system that can recycle the air, create water, and purge contaminants from both plumbing and the atmosphere.

Waste gases in the atmosphere are automatically collected by the recirculating ventilation system and pumped into a series of filters, which remove particulates and contaminant gases and, if they are unable to be broken down into useful materials, are expelled into space. Air quality sensors in each room monitor the atmospheric composition of a room 100 times per second. In the event of a hull breach, the system can react within a matter of microseconds to seal ventilation and shut bulkheads as necessary to contain damage.

Carbon Dioxide Recycling

Carbon dioxide in the air is filtered into a solid oxide electrolyser assembly, where it is heated up to 800°C and electrified, being broken down into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O₂). The carbon monoxide is then further recycled: it is combined with hydrogen gas from the ship's fuel storage and then heated to 1000°C. It is then passed over several substrate layers in a filtration stage, where the hot carbon monoxide breaks down and deposits carbon molecules onto the substrates via chemical vapour deposition, forming graphene layers, while converting the CO gas into oxygen. These layers can be periodically extracted and cleaned by maintenance personnel, where the carbon can be used for manufacturing.

This system, more advanced than normal recycling systems in operational spacecraft, can make it so the ship's oxygen supply can be theoretically indefinite without need of replenishment from an external source.

Waste Purification

Wastewater generated in the ship is recycled using a multi-stage purification process. Solid waste is separated from the contaminated water, which is then distilled and treated through catalytic oxidation and ion exchange reactions before being passed through nanoparticle filters. The end result is almost pure water rated for drinking, which is pumped back into the ship's plumbing. The water is tested automatically by a series of sensors to ensure contamination has not occurred in the water supply, automatically shutting down the recycling system and switching the ship to reserve water tanks if pollutants are detected.

The solid waste from sewage, meanwhile, is pyrolyzed in a near-vacuum to produce biochar, a fertilizer which can be collected and used for plant food in hydroponics. In the event of a water shortage or leak, additional water can be chemically synthesized using the ship's onboard APUs to generate pure water from hydrogen and oxygen.

Weapons and Defences

The Emissary is principally a scientific research vessel, but like all other isolated FFP ships, it is built with a vast array of armaments and armour capable of engaging and neutralizing an opponent twice the Emissary's size, lending the vessel both incredible firepower and a substandard manoeuvrability profile.

Armour

Emissary has a top of the line composite armour system that exponentially resists impacts as velocity increases. This allows it to defend against high velocity projectiles when normal materials would shatter. It is notably heavy and brittle when stuck at low velocities, making it unsuitable for lighter applications of armour such as personal armour and vehicles.

The Emissary's armour is minimally rated for CIWS weapons (20-30mm point defence cannon) all around. Medical bay, deck 3 and 4 are armoured to medium calibre destroyer armaments, though may be venerable to specialist armour piercing projectiles. with the wall between the main hallway and engineering covered with a extremely thick armour layer designed to protect the ships most critical systems from even the largest gun calibres. The leading edges of the structural pylons towards the back of the Emissary is also armoured to destroyer level armour.

Weapons

The Emissary is equipped with current state of the art electronic warfare systems and weapons. The ship's ordinance is limited in stockpiles, as it's magazines had to be re-designed to make space for the scientific equipment as well as other command, control, utility and airwing systems.

It's missile defence array consists of four layers, In the outermost layer electronic countermeasures are employed to confuse enemy fighters, missile carriers and torpedoes. However if targeted her next line of defence is the Laser Weapon System arrays that can target incoming ordinance, although less effective against peer threats due to advances in anti-laser coating technology it is sufficient to assist the Emissary's defences. Layer three consist of the Emissary's main cannon armaments and interceptor missiles, using the Emissary's short range missile turrets to attack incoming torpedo's and missiles. It's last layer of defence is it's huge Close In Weapons System array, tied into a IRST and LIDAR system which provides superior resolution in close range, compared to RADAR which is superior in long range applications. These four layers protect the Emissary from attack at long range.

Missiles and Torpedoes

The Emissary is equipped with 8 Type 50 torpedo launchers and 8 PDMT Turrets. All these systems are linked to all sensors of the ship via the SPACEGUARD automatic defence and attack system. An AI-driven system that optimizes and plans military actions of the Emissary. The system is also linked to the ship's engines, and electronic warfare systems and can be remote-controlled from any part of the ship with a data connection. The system is so simplified that in severe emergencies it can be operated from a handheld PDA.

600mm Type 50 Torpedo launcher

Being primary long-range armament of the Emissary, it allows the Emissary to attack long-range targets and can feature multiple lengths of torpedo. Typically using Mk series torpedoes. It is semi-universal across the SDCN with most differences located in the loading mechanism of the system. It is capable of firing a wide variety of torpedo payloads. Most of them rely on RADAR for terminal homing and have backup command line-of-sight guidance. Emissary along with its sister ship has a special type of torpedo designed for it and its specific fighting style.

Designation	Warhead	Effective (Maximum) Range (AU)	Description
Mk11B 'Artemis'	High Explosive	1.45 (2)	A high explosive, base variant of the Mk11 using a 800kg TNT equivalent warhead. A useful all-rounder against targets both large and small. It has basic Electronic jamming and RADAR filters. It can be modified to use a LIDAR seeker, however, the seeker will not have ECM resistance. First introduced in 2081.
Mk11G 'Hermes'	High Explosive		A modernized, post 21st century version, it's now equipped with improved ECM and ECCM systems to combat peer-level threats. It is also equipped with a more intelligent AI computer which can calculate the most optimal attack profile during flight as well as the target maneuverers and deploys countermeasures.
Mk14X 'Zenith'	High Explosive	0.05 (0.1) [1,000,000KM]	A close range missile optimised for maximum acceleration and protection against close range targets in railgun combat range. Specifically designed for use by emissary in close range it features poor ECM and ECCM as well as a lower yield warhead due to its armouring as well as the oversized engine used.
Mk15E 'Zeus'	Electromagnetic Pulse	0.5 (0.5)	A close-range torpedo/missile optimized for maximum acceleration, typically used within railgun range. Specifically designed for use by Emissary in close-range combat, it features poor ECM and ECCM as well as a lower yield warhead due to its armouring and the oversized engine used. Is not effective against warships (which normally have EMP defenses)
Mk21K 'Erebus'	Armour-Piercing	0.8 (1.6)	An armour-piercing torpedo, it's designed for use against heavily armoured targets (Space stations, Mobile shipyards and Battleships). It has incurs limited damage due to the low high-explosive content, and the weight of the armour. The penetrator restricts range and acceleration. It features a similar ECM and ECCM to the Mk11B.
CRM-250 'Bastion'	High Explosive Armour Pericing	3 (5)	A two-stage heavy torpedo, it uses a fusion drive as a first stage for long-range cruising and a terminal stage with an extremely high thrust-to-weight ratio. It includes ECCM, ECM and decoy launchers. It has a 2000kg TNT equivalent warhead inside a basic armour-piercing container. The Emissary cannot load the whole torpedo due to size constraints. As a result, it must be dismantled into both stages and loaded individually.
CRM-258 'Nova'	Thermonuclear	3 (5)	Similar to the CRM-250 'Bastion' torpedo, it is designed for use against strategic targets such as ports, colonies and military bases. It has a dial-a-yield warhead of up to 4.8 megatons of TNT. It is equipped with further decoy launchers to confuse planet-based space defences. The Emissary can not load the whole torpedo due to size constraints. As a result, it must be dismantled into both stages and loaded individually.

Point Defence Missiles

The PDM - 203 is a short range point defence missile designed to supplement the missile defence of the Emissary. They are designed to be cheaply mass- produced and used in mass amounts against huge swarms of fast enemy attack craft. Each turret has 3 missiles loaded at the same time and can fire and guide all three at once, allowing the Emissary to guide up to 22 missiles at once with RADAR or command guidance.

Designation	Warhead	Effective (Maximum) Range (km)	Description
PDM203-RF	Fragmentation	20,000 (52,000)	High explosive, proximity-fused missiles designed to lock onto incoming missiles and take them out of action before they can strike the home ship. Fragments on detonation to increase the likelihood of damaging an incoming kill vehicle. This model uses a RADAR seeker.
PDM203-IR	Fragmentation	20,000 (52,000)	High explosive, proximity-fused missile designed to lock onto incoming missiles and take them out of action before they can strike the home ship. Fragments on detonation to increase the likelihood of damaging an incoming kill vehicle. This model uses a IR seeker.
PDM203-N	Shaped Thermonuclear	15,020 (32,000)	A nuclear equipped variant of the PDM with a nuclear shaped charge, uses a LIDAR seeker to avoid nuclear EMP and thermal effects. It uses a shaped nuclear charge to vaporize, shatter or annihilate enemy ordnance or potentially enemy spacecraft.

Point Defence Weapons

The Emissary is equipped with 40 Laser Intercept System turrets, 20 on each side, connected via mirrored ducts to two redundant hydrogen flouride chemical laser generators located deep within the ship's unpressurized side wings. These generators, emitting in 3,800 nm mid-infrared, can rapidly direct, split, and redirect their output to any of the ship's 40 LIS turrets depending on the density and location of available targets, directed either by a computer targeting system or by Gunnery control.

The Emissary also has 16 point defence cannons (PDCs) on her upper hull and 8 PDCs on her underbelly (8 and 4 on each side respectively), Each fires a 25mm APHET projectile and has a nominal range of 300km. Each gun carries enough ammunition for a two engagement of constant shooting. With about 5 minutes needed to reload each gun by gunnery crews manually.

Both the PDCs and LISs are tied into the same SD/EPY-26B fire control radar the Emissary's missile interceptors and railguns use, along with the SD/EEY-9 targeting LIDAR and the RANGIRS infrared search-and-track system.

Railguns

Emissary has 8 railguns, each of 300mm calibre. Two are mounted to the Emissary's wings while four others are under the hull, and the last two are mounted to the sides of the ships super-structure. An SD/EPY-26B fire control radar guides railgun sabots onto their targets, with additional acquisition provided by SD/EEY-9 LIDAR. They can fire a variety of projectiles including kinetic penetrators, high explosive and experimental guided missiles. They can be used to target a planetary surface for orbital bombardment, though without sensor satellites or links with fellow vessels their orbit-to-ground targeting is extremely inaccurate.

They can be, in the absence of target lock, controlled manually with the touchpad joysticks used on the Emissary touch screens as well as for orbital bombardment when no GPS data is available. However even with GPS data danger close ranges are 1000 meters in diameter of the target. As well, their actual damage can be questioned due to the lower calibre of the guns and the effects of hyper velocity projectiles on planetary targets.

Electronic Warfare and Sensors

Electronic Countermeasure Suite

The Emissary's two redundant multifunction SD/ELQ-54 ECM suites are capable of outputting barrage jamming in multiple sensor types; one suite is mounted directly to the ship's prow, while the other is mounted in the upper stern. These multi-directional, AI-coordinated systems can overwhelm multiple enemy targeting and guidance systems, rendering targeting solutions on the Emissary difficult or effectively impossible.

The ECM's barrage radar jammer disrupts enemy radar tracking by broadcasting a constant stream of interfering radio signals, sweeping across all usable frequencies as quickly as to appear as a constant emitter across the entire possible frequency range. While massively expanding the cruiser's radar signature, and destroying any notion of stealth, the ship within the signature becomes nearly impossible to target through radar tracking.

A similar concept is used for the ECM's barrage LIDAR jammer — a phased-array infrared laser emitter, the LIDAR jammer can effectively create junk laser returns in enemy tracking systems at a variety of specific wavelengths, rendering high-precision LIDAR trackers and electro-optical trackers useless. Highly effective and widely used to throw off incoming munitions in advanced militaries, the SD/ELQ-54's LIDAR jammer is affectionately referred to as the 'disco ball' by SDC electronic warfare technicians.

The Emissary's ECM suite also includes a radio communications jammer, capable of both noise jamming — broadcasting enough same-frequency noise to render the intended enemy signal incomprehensible, and receiver jamming — impersonating the intended enemy receiver to send useless, looping junk returns to the enemy transmitter, preventing a secure communications handshake.

Heat signature decoys and offset radar decoys can be computer-coordinated with the Emissary's ECM suite to fire and deploy to optimal locations when necessary.

Tactical Sensors

The Emissary's active tactical sensors consist of an SD/EPY-20 AESA search radar, SD/EPY-26B AESA fire control radar, RANGIRS infrared search and track system, and SD/EEY-9 multifunction 905nm phased-array LIDAR (also used for navigation). Each system utilizes distributed, redundant sensors embedded in eight armoured antenna compartments arrayed across the Emissary's hull, providing full 3D sensor coverage across the cruiser's length, breadth, and height. These sensors, networked to a central AI-assisted computer program, provide a complete and constantly updated sensor picture, outlining vessels and munitions in addition to space objects, with a variety of tracking methods available to bypass an opponent's jamming efforts.

In addition to these active systems, an RA-NCSP AI-assisted sensor link pulls available sensor radar, LIDAR, infrared, and optical sensor data through encrypted radio/laser communications from all possible friendly vessels, missiles and probes, expanding the Emissary's theoretical sensor picture to nearly infinite ranges. The RA-NCSP system also performs passive ELINT duties, and can extrapolate the position of enemy sensors from incoming radar pulses and electromagnetic signals.

Scientific Sensors

Besides its military sensor packages, the Emissary is outfitted with a variety of civilian scientific sensor systems for its exploration and survey mission. Generally more fragile than the reinforced military sensors, some of these systems are typically stowed in an armoured sensor bay on the ship's underside hull, near the main reactor, and deployed only when actively in use.

Far-Field Telescope Array (FFTA)

A deployable rack of astronomical telescopes developed by civilian instrumentation company GweRu SE, the FFTA carries long-range infrared-optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and radio imagers, with the last utilizing a folding 25-meter antenna, chiefly optimized for the detection and cataloging of exoplanets. The infrared-optical system is fitted with a set of spectrographs in varying wavelengths, as well as a highly sensitive transit photometer. The FFTA, when deployed, is quickly surrounded by a massive folding radiation and heat shroud to shield the sensitive telescopes from the Emissary's running heat and radiation, as well as from background solar radiation.

Combined Distant Spectrography Array (COMSPEAR)

Embedded within the Emissary's left wingtip, COMSPEAR contains 18 specialized far-infrared, mid-infrared, near-infrared, and visible spectrographic channels designed to survey deep into a planetary atmosphere, and across its surface, to determine chemical composition, available surface minerals, and climate conditions. Highly versatile, COMSPEAR can rapidly paint a full climatological, mineralogical, and chemical picture of a surface target.

Synthetic-aperture altimetry radar (SAR)

The Emissary's X-band synthetic-aperture radar, derived from GweRu SE's ApoSAR-X, is a deployable altimetry/imaging system that can construct a full planetary heightmap over a series of polar orbits, using repeated passes to attain a more detailed and accurate topographic record. This AI-assisted heightmap can be used for topographic, exobiological, oceanographic, and other survey applications, and is generally one of the first systems used upon the beginning of a planetary survey mission. The Emissary's SAR can also be configured to operate as a high-powered ground-penetrating radar, at the cost of much of its altimetry functionality, when maps of ice caps, cave systems, or subsurface water bodies are needed.

Trace gas spectrograph (TGS)

Embedded with a small collector in the Emissary's right wingtip, the vessel's trace gas spectrograph can analyze the composition and density of any collected sample of gas within a planetary or stellar exosphere/atmosphere, and is one of the principal instruments used for exospherics and atmospherics science on the Emissary.

Velocity gravimeter (VGR)

Effectively incredibly precise accelerometers, the Emissary's two internal velocity gravimeters measure small disturbances in the vessel's position and trajectory to determine the intensity, size, shape, and status of local gravity — capable of effective gravimetry on their own, this system is usually replaced by the ship's laser ranging net.

Autonomous Laser Ranging Net (LASRNET)

To create a precise geodetic picture of a survey target, a disposable Royal Arms LASRNET capsule — of which the Emissary carries 32 in a full expedition load — can be fired out of the ship through a standard slow-launch missile tube. After deployment, these capsules propel themselves around a planet's orbit to spread a configurable number of small transceiver satellites and landers around the planet and on its surface (irrespective of whether it has a solid surface).

Once in place, the satellite net (along with the Emissary's own LIDAR) emits, reflects and receives a series of laser bursts, timing them to precisely measure the distances between transceivers. After completion, the net transmits this data back to the shipboard LASRNET computer coordinator, which can then create a geodetic survey with full and accurate distance, orientation, and gravity information for the survey target. The LASRNET can then be left in orbit for further use as a relay/sensor cloud, manually recovered, or self-destructed to prevent the creation of space debris.

Combined Survey Magnetometer (CSM)

Two deployable extension boom-mounted CSM units are mounted to each of the Emissary's wingtips, each consisting of a triaxial ring core fluxgate vector magnetometer and a triaxial helium scalar magnetometer. Together, these two instruments allow each CSM to precisely measure the strength, source, and direction of local magnetic fields, with the helium magnetometer used to calibrate the more versatile ring core magnetometer. When measuring direction, the CSM also provides useful orientation data for the ship's navigation computers.

Energetic Neutral Atom Imager (ENEGER)

ENEGER, mounted to the Emissary's bow underside centerline, is an camera device for magnetospheric mapping through the capture and recording of energetic neutral atoms — high-energy magnetospheric ions neutralized by the capture of an electron, and thus no longer captured by their parent magnetosphere, capable of providing images to the boundaries and limits of planetary and stellar magnetic fields.

Navigational Sensors

Lumicom Ranging Positioning System (LRPS)

A stellar positioning reference for warp travel standard on all extrasolar vessels, the Sullivan NGNS-LRPS measures time-to-return for precisely calibrated tachyon status communications to two base stations, one (of four available) on Earth and one (of two available) in Alpha Centauri. With flight time data from these two reference points compared to the Emissary's internal atomic clocks, the LRPS can establish a coordinate position in space relative to Sol and Alpha Centauri to be used for warp navigation.

The LRPS can also function as an independently-powered lumicom distress beacon, capable of broadcasting an automatic superluminal identification and status package to both Sol and Alpha Centauri base stations for 120 days without power; any other manually entered lumicom receiver code can also be targeted by the LRPS' distress broadcasts.

SD/EEY-9 LIDAR

The Emissary's 905nm near-infrared LIDAR also functions as a powerful navigational tool — outside of combat, the SD/EEY-9 constructs a constantly-updating laser return map of all nearby space objects and reflectors out to a configurable range, essentially creating a 3D map of nearby space, used to plot trajectories and avoid obstructions or collisions. Compared to radar systems, LIDAR lasers are much more discrete and precise, and micrometeroids are easily detected and either avoided or laser-ablated away from the Emissary's flight path.

Star tracker

An evolved, interstellar version of the venerable star tracker, the Emissary's four reference star trackers use AI imaging and recognition algorithms to locate and track a growing database of known reference stars (such as Sol, Alpha Centauri, Sirius, and Procyon), placed within an interstellar coordinate grid. With two or more reference stars tracked, parallax-calculating navigation computers can determine the cruiser's position and orientation relative to the interstellar coordinate grid, allowing the vessel to navigate accurately both in-system and in warp travel.

Inertial navigation system (INS)

The Emissary carries aboard three redundant INS units — combinations of accelerometers and vibrating gyroscopes that precisely record changes in velocity and orientation. By combining the last known position from other navigation systems with this data, the Emissary can maintain mostly accurate position recording even in the absence of reference objects, like stars, space objects, or other vessels.