A Universe-class Mass Conveyor active in the Calixis Sector.
A Universe-class Mass Conveyor is one of the largest cargo heavy transport voidships ever built by the Imperium. It operates in the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse, among other regions, as part of the merchant fleets, ferrying massive amounts of raw materials and luxury goods wherever they might be needed, usually to fulfill the insatiable appetites of Imperial Hive Worlds and Forge Worlds for manufacturing raw materials, food stuffs and technological components.
The Imperium swarms with transport vessels. Millions of these civilian voidcraft plough the space lanes, ferrying pilgrims, ore, fuel, foodstuffs, weapons, materiel, machine parts and luxury goods to untold billions of eager consumers across the galaxy.
Role[]
Amongst the myriad starships that serve the trade lanes in and around the Calixis Sector, some of the largest are the mass conveyors. Stretching some twelve kilometres from stem to stern, a mass conveyor appears at a distance to be a slim, elegant voidcraft. However, as one slowly approaches it, this misleading impression is replaced with a horrified awe, as what appear to be radio masts resolve into gigantic towers the size of hive city stacks. The voidship's true scale manifests itself as an observer realises that entire cities twinkle and shimmer along its flanks. Simply to construct a Universe-class Mass Conveyor is a massive undertaking.
To build one requires such an immense outlay of resources that they can only be constructed above the richest Imperial worlds and void stations. They are pure cargo haulers, relatively simple in design, but conceived on a truly epic scale. They are almost self-contained worlds, where entire voidborn communities live out their lives, uncaring as to the vessel’s current owners' motives or identities.
Simply unloading the vessel is a mighty undertaking, requiring solar months at a time. There are larger merchant ships (the Bountiful Beast of the Calixis Sector is 16 kilometres long, for example, and the Misericord approaches that length while being substantially more massive) but the Universe-class still dwarfs most Imperial voidships it comes across.
It is rare for Rogue Traders to take one of these ships into the Koronus Expanse, as they are slow and inflexible voidcraft. However, everything counts in large amounts.
The Universe-class is so large it comes pre-equipped with a unique component, a Secondary Power Genetorium. The hull's space has already been reduced to account for this component, which provides additional power to the vessel in addition to that provided by the ship's reactor for its primary Plasma Drive.
This vessel was designed for transporting goods on a massive scale, and no amount of retrofitting can fully change this. This hull comes pre-equipped with four main cargo hold components whose space has already been reserved within the hull, making the addition of additional weapons systems or modifications difficult. The Universe-class was never intened to be a ship of war.
Dimensions[]
- Hull: Transport
- Class: Universe-class Mass Conveyor
- Dimensions: 12 kilometres long, approximately 1.3 kilometres abeam at fins
- Mass: 60 megatonnes approximately
- Crew: 60,000 crew, 200,000–500,000 potential passenger capacity
- Acceleration: .5 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration
Sources[]
- Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus (RPG), pg. 30