Colony Ship

Colony ships are a class of space ship primarily intended to transport colonists and the supplies they need to land on new worlds. They are operated by every FTL-capable society that has colonised a new world, and are often one of the first ships such a society will construct. Colony ships incorporate massive onboard living facilities, cargo holds, and cryogenic freezing facilities capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of colonists on their months- or years-long journey. Early colony ships vastly outstripped the capabilities of their structural integrity fields, instead relying on more traditional physical structural reinforcement to maintain their integrity. This left them extremely slow and lacking in maneuverability, but capable of withstanding extremely harsh planetary conditions once landed.
When a colony ship lands at its destination, it is converted into the hub for the new colony, and as such, conatains all the facilities needed to support and maintain it in harsh planetary conditions. However, while in space, colony ships are extremely vulnerable to hostile actions, as they are unarmed and possess little in the way of armour or other defences. Some advanced colony ships transfer control of the ship to artificial intelligence, allowing the colonists and crew to enter cryo-sleep for the entire duration of the voyage.

Related Professions

• Colonist

Length

Varies greatly, usually multiple kilometres

Complement / Crew

1,000-10,000 crew

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

100,000-500,000 colonists
50,000+ TEU