John Locke
V U L K A N
- Intent: To create a luxury speeder for production and sale by Locke and Key Mechanics
- Image Source: Behance.net
- Canon Link: (Please link the canon link if applicable canon item.)
- Permissions: N/a
- Primary Source: N/a
- Manufacturer: Locke and Key Mechanics
- Affiliation: Closed Market
- Model: Clarion Luxury Speeder
- Modularity: No
- Production: Mass-produced
- Material: Ultrachrome chassis, Durasteel frame, electronics, Ceraglass, Leather
- Classification: Luxury Airspeeder
- Role: Personal Transport
- Size: Average
- Weight: Heavy
- Armaments: None
- Defences: Very High
- Maneuverability Rating: High
- Speed Rating: Very High
- Propulsion: Repulsorlift
- Minimum Crew: 0 (Autopilot).
- Optimal Crew: 1 (Driver)
- Passenger Capacity: 3 (4 including driver’s seat)
- Cargo Capacity: Small
- LK O.N.N. mesh running the vehicle
- H.U.D. built into canopy
- 2 Front seats can rotate to face rear seats
- Electro-reactive ceraglass canopy
- Small Central table with microrepulsors built into the surface to prevent objects placed on the table from sliding around. The table also contains coolers on each side
- Hermes Comms system built into vehicle
- Shield
- Leather seats, real wood panelling, variable lighting system
- Boost
- Ultrachrome chassis
- Microrepulsor’s built into seats
- Microspeakers scattered around the vehicle create a surround sound experience.
- Privacy field
- Skynet holo control system
- Padlocke
- LK O.N.E.: The vehicle is controlled by the optical neural network developed by Locke and Key Mechanics. While the processor might ordinarily be seen as overkill for an autopilot, a job which is normally handled by a basic droid brain, the additional power can be used to provide Yijun with additional processing power if he needs it for business needs. The optical Neural net is rare enough that a standard carjacker would not have the equipment to hack the system.
- H.U.D. Canopy: The smartglass layer built into the canopy allows for the vehicle’s dashboard signals, as well as routes, maps and additional data to be displayed on the windscreen right at the drivers eye level. This prevents him from needing to glance down at the dashboard while avoiding unsightly blemishes in the luxury surrounds.
- Electro-reactive canopy: The entire top of the vehicles is a construct of Ceraglass containing an electro reactive layer that can increase or decrease their tint at the driver or passenger’s say so. This has the dual effect of allowing the passengers to avoid the sun reflecting in their face, and to avoid being seen if they don’t want to be. The canopy can go from transparent to an opaque continuation of the car’s colour. The glass can also be set to a one-way mode, allowing the occupants to look out without being seen.
- C-top: The canopy is constructed of hexagons of ceraglass which can be assembled or disassembled at the press of a button allowing the speeder to act as a convertible, allowing it’s passengers to enjoy the sun and fresh air or to remain sealed up. Once the canopy is activated it can’t be distinguished from a single piece of ceraglass.
- Hermes: A unit of Locke and Key’s signature individual and small vehicle communications system, is installed in the vehicle, allowing the driver and passengers to use it to make calls and access the holonet while being protected by it’s secure Quantum Key encryption.
- Privacy Field: The vehicle comes equipped with a privacy field that dampened the sounds coming from the vehicle. It can make eavesdropping, or the use of mics/laser mics to overhear what is being said much much harder. The privacy field has the added advantage of dampening the sound of the speeder’s engines making it sound almost silent as it moves.
- Luxury Interior: In a vehicle designed to be a luxury speeder you expect a certain level of comfort, and Locke and Key have sought to provide it. From the real wood panelling to the real leather seats everything about the vehicle exudes comfort and distinction.
- Ultrachrome: The entire chassis of the vehicle is made of Ultrachrome, the sheen of the metal adding an air of distinction to the vehicle, while the superconductor properties of the metal also provide a high level of protection.
- Can’t catch me: The speeder is both fast and manoeuvrable, getting its passengers where they want to go both in style, and fast as well as outrunning any potential pursuit.
- Microrepulsors: The microrepulsor’s built into the seats of the vehicle can supplement or even replace safety harnesses. The fields generated by the fields can hold the passenger sitting in the seat in place as well as acting as inertial dampeners reducing the effects of high-speed turns. In the event of a collision or crash the fields can expand their intensity, switching from lightly holding someone in place to a more secure field to protect the occupant.
- Skynet: The skynet control system is a holographic control system, allowing someone sitting in any position to issue commands to the vehicles. Which the driving controls aren’t as fine as those of the dedicated controls of the driver’s seat. The system also allows data to be sent to holographic screens allowing presentations to be made to either all the passengers or allowing each passenger to observe their own screen.
- Shield: The speeder has an inbuilt shield system which can be activated to protect the speeder and its occupants from attack. The shield also has the advantage of protecting the speeder from scratches and any thieves who might get interested in it.
- Un-armed: The vehicle is a purely civilian vehicle, designed to transport it’s passengers from X to Y in style and comfort. It is equipped with no weapons or means of combat.
- Defended...for its size: Which the thin security field and the ultrachrome chassis do provide a high level of survivability to the vehicle it falls far short of the defences available to a military vehicle.
- Shield: While the shield system can provide protection it also increases the drag of the speeder, slowing it down while active.
- Stand out: Everything about the speeder is designed to stand out, from the sleek exterior chassis to the interior. Not the vehicle you want to take if you don’t want to be noticed.
- Limited cargo space: Enough to hold your suitcases, or shopping, but not much more than that.
Locke and Key had developed a name for creating high-end civilian craft with the Helios Luxury Yacht and the Sterope-class Shuttle and now they turned their eyes on the speeder market with the Clarion Luxury Speeders. Packed full of the latest technology inside and out the Clarions were the ultimate in modern luxury.
The creation of a Clarion speeder starts with the ultrachrome chassis. The designers at Locke and Key Mechanics, knew that the super-conducting metal would provide both an expensive-looking veneer to the vehicle but also a level of defence if it should ever come under attack. Above the chassis was one of the signature features of the speeder, the retractable ceraglass canopy. Made up of hexagons of electro-reactive glass that can slide back and forth over one another to form a sealed canopy or retract away at the press of a button. Each panel of glass can turn from transparent to a metallic opaque as a current is passed through it allowing the passengers to view their surroundings, or to remain hidden as per their choice. The ceraglass can also be turned into a one-way mirror, allowing the occupants to look out without being seen themselves.
While the outside of the speeder looked more than impressive in its own right it was under the hood of the speeder that it was you could truly see the speeder’s capabilities.
From the deployable energy shield designed to protect the speeder from damage and enemy attacks to the privacy field which could be extended around the vehicle to dampen sound and provide privacy to the occupants the speeder was truly a construction of layer upon layer of technology and luxury as it’s designers tried to account for every situation. This design philosophy could be seen in the micro speakers dotted around the cabin, and the Skynet control system that allowed each occupant to generate a holoscreen, providing instruction to the neural network that ran the vehicle at their leisure.
Unlike most speeders that had an autopilot function, Locke and Key Mechanics forwent the generally accepted use of a droidbrain to pilot the speeder. Instead, they created a fibre-optic neural network running the entire length of the speeder. Not just an autopilot, not just designed to get from A-B, the neural network was designed to support the occupants of the vehicle. By providing them with a local hub of processing power they can call on, or that could power their digital assistant, such as a Navi. The Vehicle is also capable of heuristic learning, learning optimal routes and quirks to best suit it’s occupants. The system was designed to be run by a Navi, or similar assistant, the vehicle driving itself while the Navi provided a destination and a route to get there.
Locke and Key went so far as to specially design the seats of the speeder, inserting a layer of microrepulsors underneath the leather of the seats. This allowed them to retain the aesthetic that would be so important to so many of their clients. The microrepulsors acted as a safety harness, able to activate to hold the passengers in place if needed without the need for a physical harness which could crumple or otherwise ruin clothes. They could also be used to protect a passenger from the movements of the speeder, so they would hardly feel the twists and turns, or as the speeder rose and sank providing for a much smoother journey.
While each seat was capable of reclining back, the front two seats were able to turn around to face the rear seats, turning the speeder into an impromptu meeting room or lounge, where a meeting could be held in transit, or friends could talk while they travelled.
Internal appearance
