ʜᴄ sᴠɴᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏɴᴇs
Artist's rendition of unknown, flying object as appearing in independent HoloCast Unchained. Has since ceased publication due to a silent, unspoken boycott by the majority of distributors.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: A floating, mobile stealth base to loom over the skies of Malachor and exert Antherion's oppressive will, unbeknownst to the populace.
- Image Source: Sacred Geometry: Printed Edition
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: Salvaged technology from Darth Abyss's fallen safehouses, the engineers and knowledge of the libraries of Lorrd, what information was salvageable regarding the Star Fortresses of the ancient civilazation of Zakuul, salvaged steel and alloys from the fallen shipfields of Malachor V.
- Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards, Resurgent Imperial Government, Various independent Malachor manufacturers.
- Model: N/A
- Affiliation: Antherion, Allies
- Modularity: No
- Production: Unique
- Material: Hybrid Plexisteel, Transparisteel
- Classification: Surveillance Craft
- Role: Mobile Spy Fortress
- Size: Comparable to a small-to-medium apartment complex.
- Weight: Heavy
- Minimum Crew: Five
- Optimal Crew: 30
- Propulsion: Repulsors constantly maintain the vehicle's height in the atmosphere,
- Speed: Very Slow (The Panopticon moves more slowly than the average public shuttle transport.)
- Maneuverability: Very Low (Essentially none, unless the vehicle posted a few hours' warning.)
- Armaments:Moderate (Climate Disruption Array, Slicing Probes/Buzz Droids, GenoHaradan signal jamming technology.)
- Defenses: Extreme (Extensive anti-sensor and anti-detection measures, as well as long-range sensor equipment based on Zakuulan technological principles. High-level early warning measures and layered defensive fields.)
- Squadron Count: Less than one.
- Passenger Capacity: 835
- Cargo Capacity: The vehicle itself is designed to carry the necessary equipment to sustain a small-sized, standing population of specialists. As such, weight is a small concern with regards to the items it can carry so much as volume. That being said, it does have limits -- it could not remain aloft
- Hard to Detect: The entire structure of the Panopticon is surrounded by multiple, overlapping crystal-derived Adegan cloaking devices that render it essentially invisible. The outer structure of the building is a harmonic transparisteel array not unlike a prism, designed to stymie and redirect laser-based sensing technology, and structures in the vehicle broadcast counter-signalling frequencies that, rather than crudely jamming detection technology, overwhelms it with false negatives and untrue trajectories.
- Eye in the Sky: The structure is constantly sending and receiving signals, as well as intercepting signals. The nature of the structure broadcasts the signals through multiple sources, creating a labyrinth to trace. Antherion's control of Malachor allows the device numerous system backdoors, and much of the structure is used to process and acquire information. Very little can hide from the Panopticon, and that which does must sacrifice much involvement with the city's infrastructure and networks.
- Storm Warning: Although more often a deployment platform for strike teams or assassins, the Panopticon has an emergency means of defending itself from attackers. The Climate Disruption Array can gather a raging storm, with the Panopticon at the eye. The necessary buildup of energy means that when it conjures up truly dangerous, should any cameras pierce the cover of clouds and rain, it would be possible to view the Panopticon and detect its presence. However, hurricane-speed winds and torrential participation often mean that getting to it is an arduous trial. It does not need to decloak when it conjures lighter fog and precipitation.
- Shielded: The stealth field can be run in conjunction with an electromagnetic force field that prevents access and destroys what collides with it. This is taxing, and therefore is only activated when there exists a clear and present danger.
- Sustainability: The structure circulates air, condenses water from the atmosphere and mixes it with recycled, clean water, and has several generators (although not enough to not need to refuel). Its standing crew includes a number of specialists designed to make the entire ship run with as few supplies as possible. As a result, the only time anything needs to be brought on or off is when new technology is being installed, new members are brought onboard, or during its monthly restocking of synthesis chemicals.
- No Guns: The nature of the Panopticon means that it was not built to engage in direct confrontation. It may contain a wide array of disabling technology to be used in covert deployment, as well as the terrifying Climate Disruption Array, but no means of true, direct assault. It prefers to instead hide, and relies on being unseen, unknown, and notified of any early warning.
- Power Sink: The Panopticon must sustain a massive amount of technology, including that which hides it. At least every three weeks, and every two weeks at most, it must dock with one of the two major power stations in Malachor. Although Imperial renovation means that it often and easily arrives unseen, it still is at its most vulnerable. Frequently, these days are when the weather is too overcast (by design) for high-flying vehicles, and they occurr at an irregular schedule.
- Slow: The vehicle cannot travel far from the metropolises of the Tainted City and the Spheres due to its need to constantly refuel. It likewise cannot engage in evasive action, and has very little capacity to flee if found. In essence, it can hide, but it can't run.
- Singular: This is not a redundant or expendible device. If the Panopticon falls, Antherion loses control of Malachor.
- No Viewports: All imaging is done through cameras, sensors, and probes. Without these, the Panopticon is blind.
The previous policy of the Lord Darth Abyss, in his control of Malachor V, was to scatter power. Rather than hold a single, crushing fist over the world, his methodology involved soft control through multiple third parties, a spiderweb woven with the Sith Master at the center. Antherion rejects this philosophy, in part out of his own domineering principles, in part out of spite. Balancing risk and reward, Antherion capitalized on his numerous financial connections to, with the temporary measure of offloading the financing of his military to the Imperial Resurgent government's Domain branch, redirect all resources that may have maintained many small bases into a single, unstoppable engine of spying, blackmail, and deceit.
Hoarding information and sifting easily through countless streams of data, the Panopticon was not designed with combat in mind, and rather provides for a base that is nigh-impossible to find. Records of its construction were purged. Its docking schedule is irregular, and its shielding is formidable.
Physically, the structure is seldom seen but has a bizarre appearance. An arrangement of platonic solids intersecting at various angles, its outer lattice forms a strange, semitranslucent prism. Its internal structure has the look of an austere, featureless prison. There are no windows, no visible doors. Inside, hallways and elevators wind and bend through a facility not unlike a spaceship. Every surface bristles with speakers, monitors, and terminals that constantly spew information, and most of the crew rushes to attend to any actionable intelligence.
It is in this structure that Antherion's personal bodyguards are trained, as well as where the hostage children of his operatives are educated and reeducated. Cells hold prisoners for interrogation, and spies and assassins ready themselves for their next mission.
Some might wonder how one grows accustomed to the horrific, drab nature of the Panopticon, where soldiers while away the time with endless drills of increasing specificity in between repairing and improving the kill-droids that they hone themselves against, or where spies immerse themselves wholly in the HoloNet.
This is the most heartbreaking, insidious part of the vessel of paranoia and despair. Even the culture aboard the craft is designed to leach away hope and humanity, to reduce individuals to unthinking cogs in a machine. The unblinking, unseen hand of fear menaces those beneath it, but it crushes those within it. If you are brought aboard, pray the stay is short and ends in the mercy of death.
