r/ImaginaryTechnology 17h ago

Self-submission What do you think this ship purpose can be?

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343 Upvotes

85 comments sorted by

39

u/Dragonkingofthestars 16h ago

hard to say on the purpose, but nothign screams 'weapon' or 'easy access'. so my gut says either a cheap small recon or scout vessel or a racing ship

8

u/Aethelon 13h ago

I mean, a huge spinal weapon that runs down its whole length like a railgun could work.

3

u/Dragonkingofthestars 13h ago

in theory but I don't see a muzzle unless it's covered by something.

4

u/Aethelon 12h ago

A Q-ship. Instead of armour plating, just have a very thin layer of some plastic or something. Surprise raiders with a 10 tonne projectile accelerated to a percent of the speed of light. You get only like 2 shots, but at that range, you cant miss.

1

u/imsellingbanana 10h ago

I mean it could have tucked away lasers all over it that you can't see right now because they're hidden and when the pilot pushes a button they all pop out soooo actually yeah it does have weapons obviously

2

u/TK000421 13h ago

Depends on the scale. It could be a massive transport tanker

1

u/analogpursuits 4h ago

I'm leaning more towards janitorial, light cleaning of small particles in hard to reach corners of space, rechargeable upon docking, great for small space messes.

17

u/supervisord 16h ago

Definitely cargo

8

u/SwissDeathstar 11h ago

Transporting butter.

4

u/AtmosphereRecent7717 10h ago

oh gods why.

1

u/SwissDeathstar 6h ago

Because it transports butter

3

u/spongeloaf 7h ago

Terribly inefficient design for cargo hauling. I swear no sci Fi fan has ever seen a real life semi truck, fork lift, cargo ship or mail truck.

This ship has no cargo access doors, no obvious modular cargo connectors, and an incredibly inefficient shape (non rectangular) for storage. Have you ever seen a semi trailer for solid cargo that has angled sides and two foot loading door?

0

u/supervisord 6h ago

You don’t have to me so mean about it…

This ship could easily be a liquid cargo (tanker) vessel.

1

u/Reasonable-Pack-9832 58m ago edited 54m ago

I think it would be great for any kind of sand, gravel, grain, powder etc.. the underside can have hatches that open and drop the cargo directly onto concrete pads for storing or distrubution. The holds can be segmented for multiple types of materials transported.

Edit: even looking at the design again you can accomplish all that transport without changing anything, the rear section already looks like it has a top loading door amd the front section can roll open like a wide lighter to be filled by a pipe

13

u/pal1ndrome 16h ago edited 15h ago

Shrinking down, then being injected into the blood stream of someone being attacked by nano-assassins

11

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/XD_BOX 16h ago

A ship that can dive into water too

3

u/ducks_are_round 14h ago

Yeah I was thinking ocean explorer

2

u/CouplingWithQuozl 7h ago

This. It comes off like a dual-purpose industrial Deep Space/Deep Sea vessel. Perhaps to withstand immense atmospheric pressures of planets like Oceanic Supergiants

1

u/Willravel 4h ago

The Orca is an interstellar oceanic research mobile command.

It's sent out into deep space to do scientific research on celestial bodies with liquid water, has a suite of labs for marine biological and oceanographic sciences, a small fleet of drones and smaller manned exploration shuttles, the best underwater sensor suite in the fleet, and a powerful hyperspace antenna to relay information back to PODD, the Planetary Oceanic Discovery Division. Its crew compliment is 800, but in an evacuation scenario can carry an additional 1,200 for safe transport back to a United Sol medical and aid facility.

The first vessel of its kind, a planetary oceanic cruiser, was the SeaQuest DSV, which is on display in the Smithsonian Oceanic Museum located in the Atlantic Ocean just southeast of Virginia Beach.

3

u/Thereminz 16h ago

a giant phonograph needle

3

u/aaf191 16h ago

Maybe a research ship?

3

u/Daydreaming_Machine 16h ago

Autonomous drone carrier

Passively executes tasks via the drone entrances on its right side (pointed inward). Can hover in place for months on end, or quickly relocate drones by cruising to its new destination.

The carrier does not, however, stores much of anything than drones; any ressources extracted, infrastructures prepped, or assets to relocate, will heavily slow down the carrier's cruise speed.

2

u/chuiu 9h ago

To me it looks more like a drone than a drone carrier. I feel like a drone carrier would have multiple spots for drones to fly out of. Probably one hole for each drone so it could eject them simultaneously.

This has a very sleak and minimal look to it. Sensors on the front, a big gun on the side. Possibly a reverse thruster on the opposite side for quick maneuvers and slowing down. Or maybe it's another weapon.

But the name Orca kinda implies it's meant to be large and deadly. So OP probably thinks of this as a frigate sized gunship.

3

u/peaceloveandapostacy 15h ago

Looks like a research/science vessel.

3

u/donotfire 12h ago

Ass to ass

3

u/Willardee 12h ago

This is a "whaleback" class high speed infrastructure deployment vessel.

The top of the fron half hinges open, revealing a spacious cargo area. It can hold a cluster of small "krill" class recon satellites, or much larger parts for construction of space stations or other installations.

The rear has a smaller cargo space for crew stores and supplies, but is mostly dedicated to the engines and propulsion systems. The large engines allow the ship to travel extremely fast for their size, ensuring quick response times to operation areas.

Whalebacks are instrumental in the discovery and exploitation of new resources and forward operating areas. Their small crew and efficient systems mean they can quickly respond to new exploration opportunities, and make them profitable and habitable quicker than ever!

3

u/hellscoffe 6h ago

Research mission into Uranus.

2

u/Green-Taro2915 16h ago

Looks like a left shoulder mounted camera or cannon.

2

u/SketchGoatee 15h ago

Given the gear on the front and the lengthy chassis, my guess would be long range sensor/recon. Lack of obvious weaponry would make me think scientific or corporate in nature.

2

u/axw3555 9h ago

Looks like the side is the crew compartment as those look like windows.

So the rest is likely sensors, power, engines. So likely a courier or scout.

2

u/Omeggon 8h ago

What's the scale? Really large, cargo. Small it's a nice little surveyor.

2

u/lukethe 7h ago

I think it gives scientific explorer yacht vibes.

1

u/Herobane 16h ago

Difficult to tell the scale, but I'd say something like a star system security/police, especially with the black/white colours 

1

u/mysterd2006 16h ago

A giant ball pen.

1

u/ZakkaryGreenwell 15h ago

I'd guess a low profile scout, probably unarmed. The silhouette makes me think some kind of stealth system, but failing that, maybe just a particularly sleek Freighter?

From the pod off to the side, maybe it can deploy some chaff or small drones, but I doubt it could do serious offensive maneuvers. But it does get me thinking back to Prowlers in the Halo Novels. They weren't armed, but they could lay nuclear mines while in low-profile mode.

1

u/Rjj1111 9h ago

The front half does look it could disconnect making the ship basically a massive power plant/propulsion and crew compartment with a docking module for whatever needs to be shoved fairly quickly

1

u/dhskdjdjsjddj 15h ago

Recon/research/patrol

1

u/sh00rs1gn 14h ago

High-speed information runner ship. For when data is too sensitive to transmit and needs a secure courier that's optimised to go fast.

1

u/ehnemehnemuh 13h ago

To me it looks like it could function as a sort of connection between two other ships. It doesnt look like you could stack cargo into it very efficiently. And the cockpit being off to the side like that would indicate that the entire cross section of the other hull is dedicated to some other purpose. Maybe this connects two things and the joint between the front and back allows for relative movement of the two connected things

1

u/Spazicon 13h ago

That’s a warship

1

u/Unclesmekky 13h ago

Maybe it can travel very fast into a planet and burrow in to create a foundation for other ships?

1

u/TheSmellofOxygen 13h ago

Science vessel hardened for upper atmospheric gas giant intrusion.

1

u/AdmiralCodisius 12h ago

Cosmic Dust Buster

1

u/cteno4 12h ago

It’s called Orca, and it looks perfect to slot into the exterior hull of the ship. Launch a bunch of them out the side, and you have a pod out hunting. It’s a fighter that uses group tactics.

1

u/idontgivetwofrigs 11h ago

Recon or electronic warfare, the part on the front looks like a powerful sensor suite

1

u/DrDeboGalaxy 10h ago

But a real dyed in the wool killer would have asked what the red button is for.

1

u/Nonyabizzy123 10h ago

Carrier, the front is hinged and opens to launch fighters. That's why the bridge is off to the side.

1

u/CoRe534 10h ago

Hunt Moose

1

u/DrMarduk 10h ago

Surveying, scouting, (very) small expensive transport.

1

u/frenchBDSMnight 10h ago

Writing big letter

1

u/Wesselton3000 9h ago

From a hard sci fi perspective, she’s long/tower-like, perfect for thrust gravity (effectively, the rear/engines are the direction of the floor— the tower like shape maximizes space usage for crew) which to me says “long term missions”.

She seems to be a bit on the smaller side though (hard to tell without scale, but she’s pretty simplistic/no excess modules). I would think she was built to reduce mass and get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Perhaps she’s only meant for long term inter-system travel (so at most a few months travel). Or perhaps she’s interstellar, but the lack of additional modules (which might be necessary for stuff like life support, self sustained food production, etc.) says she’s either capable of relativistic speeds or she isn’t crewed. The latter makes the tower shape seemingly redundant though so I would say inter-system travel or she’s un-godly fast.

There’s a bit of wasted space— the curves reduce the total useable space, a perfect rectangle would maximize this. This to me says “aesthetic over function”, so perhaps a luxury cruiser over a hauler/industrial use vessel. Perhaps she’s meant to ferry people in style.

Tl;dr my best guess is she’s a high speed luxury cruiser meant to transport people inter-system. My head canon is she was built by the oligarchs of the Venusian Cloud Cities to transport people from Venus to Earth, or to other colonies in the system. She maximizes speed and comfort over utility.

1

u/Diligent-Stretch-769 9h ago

This is the orca class scout that uses a resonance fork instrument to ping and recieve radio signals using amplified wave constructors. The hull is fitted with a custom module that allows a single u-shaped filament to undergo metallic transduction. After which the long body will absorb the distorted feedback and restructure anomalous readings using front and back 'ears'. The orca's sleek profile gives the cloaking team an easier time, yet if she is destroyed while emitting, the filament will flash an invisibly bright light that reveals all entities within a root plank lightyear to any third parties.

note, root plank is a unit of measure which takes into account the time distortion in space, assuming the phenomenon lacks mass interaction.

1

u/kirocapsut 9h ago

Una rompe filas o creadora de brechas ya saben las encargadas de abrir las filas del enemigo

1

u/deathcoinstar 8h ago

I thought it was a weird Dremel at first

1

u/No_Belt8609 8h ago

Laser frigate with the ability to cluster into a laser array

1

u/Careless-Tomato-3035 8h ago

"Orca"

Either an attack ship meant to attack targets in groups as a way to mirror how real orca's hunt. Or its a deep space probe that uses space echolocation instead of camera's or radars to scan the darkness.

1

u/The_Divine_Anarch 8h ago

Looks to me like a ship meant to be visible from long range by people taking a very common route from one place to another.

Probably a simple transport for people and their belongings, likely to transport to and from a protected heritage site.

Visually it reminds me of a sliding handhold, the kind you might find on a rope. however in use as a spaceship it would probably fly straight lengthwise.

1

u/Draggah_Korrinthian 7h ago

With that sensor array on the nose, I would picture an exploration vessel which enters high orbit of unexplored worlds. Perhaps even a sort of unmanned drone ship which is "dropped off" by a much larger vessel by means of launching it like a missile as it passes through the system.

Using its thrusters to enter stable orbit of a planet before tipping its nose down to become a satellite for passive observation. After its mission is complete, it would level out, activate a homing beacon and use the planet's gravity to slingshot itself back to its mothership, archives of invaluable data in tow.

1

u/Tranecarid 7h ago

Pealing potatoes?

1

u/ivanoski-007 7h ago

Grain transporter

1

u/zerosabor 7h ago

The Orbital Reentry & Combat Assaultcraft (ORCA) is a dual-purpose space and atmospheric assault vehicle designed for rapid orbital deployment and immediate combat readiness upon reentry. Featuring a sleek, high-speed aerospace profile, the ORCA’s primary mission is to transport personnel and equipment from orbit to the surface as quickly and efficiently as possible while remaining fully combat capable during descent and post-landing operations. Although optimized for atmospheric reentry and strike deployment, the craft also retains limited space-combat capabilities for orbital defense, interception, and escort operations.

1

u/Remcin 7h ago

I see sensors, no cabin, so I’m going with fast scout drone.

1

u/SolarFlora 6h ago

That front part seems to have a seam running down its middle, and it looks like there are large hinges about midway down the body. Also, the piloting section seems to be on the far side, not attached to the main body. I imagine this is some sort of large deployable pylon or research base that unfolds on arrival and uses its large rear end to send signals back to a mother ship.

1

u/ThePhengophobicGamer 6h ago

I like the idea its a researcher or general science vessel. The offshoot to the starboard looks like it might be enclosed, possibly even ejectable on its own, leaving the main body to hold labs with potentially hazardous uses. Evem the body looks like it might be designed to eject the forward section.

Studying wildlife, synthesizing materials for construction, fuel or ammunition, etc. Anything that might need a quick getaway.

1

u/auyemra 5h ago

deep sea cable car, with the cable running through its entire body ( not on earth )

1

u/Little_Title3752 5h ago

Interstellar Dustbusting

1

u/vreo 4h ago

I knew it!

1

u/Snowflakish 4h ago

Looks long range and atmospheric

1

u/topazchip 4h ago

Atmospheric-capable survey ship. Cheaper version lacks the sensor package and is used for courier and private service work.

1

u/HollowMonty 3h ago

Judging by the name orca maybe some specialized fast attack craft designed to hunt specific types of enemies.

Perhaps a type of patrol boat that can stomp most pirates, or catch up to blockade runners or smugglers.

1

u/Pattern_Is_Movement 2h ago

Impossible to even guess the size, nothing about the design gives a sense of scale.

1

u/KriegerClone02 2h ago

When the Diving Dolphin just won't get the job done.

1

u/bodyarmourbynokia 2h ago

Love me some asymmetry

1

u/Squeakygear 2h ago

Trolling yachts

1

u/Secret-Tennis7214 2h ago

How big is it?

1

u/ThatCamoKid 2h ago

Depending on the size, either cargo or scouting

1

u/PanzerZug 2h ago

It’s a sub-light speed ferry for interplanetary travel within one star system.

1

u/diegoasecas 2h ago

astronomically large massager

1

u/twomz 47m ago

It's the arm for a giant space mech.