Gudersnipe Ships

Ship Systems

GE ship systems are classified into three different color-coded categories:

Blue: Primary Systems; shields, weapons, engines, power generation, big stuff. Purple: Support Systems; life-support, power-transfer, stuff that makes big stuff work. Orange: Minor sub-systems and diagnostics, artificial gravity, water purification, computers, little stuff, generally low-power.

System classifications are based on numerous criteria such as complexity, importance, power-requirements, integration, etc. Waste-management, for example, would not normally be though of as ‘primary’; but because ship’s waste is fed into the engines as fuel, waste-management is closely integrated with engines and thus a Blue system. Weapons, while not vital to the ship’s general survival, are high-energy and high-complexity and are thus Blue. Life support, while vital, is a support-system, and thus classified under ‘Purple’.

In addition to color, all ship’s systems have a primary and secondary designation, used namely during repair operations. Life support, for example, is ‘primary’, because life sucks without air. Waste management, is, of course, secondary, because you don’t need the ability to flush the toilet in order to breath. Power Transfer is primary because nothing else works without it; weapons are secondary because you don’t need to shoot when you can’t breath. Shields are primary because ships can’t move very fast without them (impacting a piece of space dust at 70% light speed will kill you without deflectors). Thus, it falls to the engineers and chief petty officers to understand all this stuff and actually make the ship go.