Ship Systems & Quality — Palimpsest

Status: Private GM campaign canon Use: Describe what a ship can do, how well it was built, and how close it is to quitting Scale: Individual subsystems, not whole-ship averages Verdigris baseline: Locked from SHIP.md, SHIP-CLASSES-AND-REGISTRY.md, the live ship tour, and current maintenance cards Construction and retrofit procedure: SHIP-BUILDER.md

The three-axis rule

Every ship subsystem gets three independent ratings:

Capability / Build Quality / Condition

Example: C3 Standard / Utility / Worn.

Those words answer different questions.

Axis	Question	What it changes
Capability (0–6)	What can this subsystem do when it works?	Functions, reach, throughput, autonomy, and hard limits
Build Quality	How well was this particular installation designed and assembled?	Precision, tolerance, efficiency, serviceability, integration, and failure margin
Condition	What state is it in right now?	Reliability, available performance, faults, leaks, missing parts, and urgency

A Frontier sensor in Failing condition is still built around extraordinary science. It is also a box that lies to the bridge every third sweep. A fresh manual galley does not become an auto-kitchen because somebody polished it.

Capability scale

C	Name	General meaning
0	Absent / Manual	No dedicated system, or the job is done by people with portable tools and nerve
1	Rudimentary	Dedicated but narrow; local control, low throughput, little redundancy
2	Basic	Useful shipboard installation; limited automation, range, capacity, or treatment depth
3	Standard	Mature working-ship capability for its role; integrated, repeatable, and supportable
4	Advanced	Markedly better than ordinary commercial equipment; high autonomy, resilience, or performance
5	Frontier	Rare, expensive, and strategically valuable; does things normal yards cannot reproduce
6	Near-Miraculous	The setting's practical ceiling; effects look impossible until the service manual ruins the mood

Capability is subsystem-specific. C4 armor and a C4 galley are not equal in price, mass, or military value. They only occupy the same rung inside their own jobs.

Build Quality

Rating	Meaning
Improvised	Adapted, hand-fitted, or built from mismatched parts. May be clever as hell. Documentation is usually a note taped inside a panel.
Utility	Honest industrial work. Serviceable tolerances, common parts, easy access, no money wasted on elegance.
Certified	Built and installed to a recognized civil, medical, military, or survey standard with traceable parts and test records.
Precision	Tight tolerances, low losses, excellent calibration, strong integration. Wants trained technicians and correct tools.
Exceptional	Masterwork or strategic production. Redundant where it matters, unusually efficient, and difficult to copy even with the drawings.

Build Quality is not a straight synonym for reliability. An Improvised drive can be Sound because its engineer knows every weld. A Precision drive can be Failing because a port fitted the wrong coolant seal and lied on the invoice.

Condition

Rating	Meaning
Failed	Cannot perform its primary job. It may still be dangerous, energized, pressurized, or on fire.
Failing	Primary function is intermittent, unsafe, or sharply reduced. Repair is immediate, not someday.
Worn	Works, but faults are recurring, margins are thin, and hard use can expose the next weak part.
Serviceable	Performs its rated job. Ordinary maintenance is due on an ordinary schedule.
Sound	Fully within spec, well maintained, and carrying useful margin.
Fresh	New, rebuilt, or comprehensively overhauled; baseline readings and consumables are effectively reset.

Condition can temporarily suppress available capability. Record the installed rating first, then the current limit: C4 Advanced / Precision / Failing (available as C2 until the emitter spine is aligned). Do not quietly erase the equipment the ship actually owns.

Unsurveyed and not applicable

Use Unsurveyed when the ship has not been opened, tested, or measured well enough to rate an axis. Use N/A only when the axis truly does not apply, such as Build Quality on a subsystem confirmed absent. Unknown numbers remain Unsurveyed. Do not fill an empty box with decorative engineering.

Why Tech Level is separate

Tech Level describes the scientific and industrial base behind a design: available materials, manufacturing methods, computation, medicine, power physics, and what a competent yard of that era could build. It does not say what was installed on this hull.

A high-TL lifeboat may still have C1 Rudimentary navigation because it only needs to find the nearest beacon. Its components can be tiny, efficient, and Exceptional without gaining interstellar survey capability. The reverse matters too: an old C4 Advanced hospital may perform broader medicine than a new C2 Basic clinic, even if the new clinic uses cleaner, later-generation components.

Keep TL as provenance:

TL sets the design vocabulary and possible ceiling.
Capability records mission effect.
Build Quality records execution.
Condition records the present mess.

When a lower-TL system achieves a high Capability rating, expect size, crew, fuel, heat, or maintenance penalties. When a higher-TL system performs a modest job, expect compactness, lower demand, or better Quality—not free extra functions.

Subsystem capability ladders

Hull / structure

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Open frame, pressure tent, or carried module. No integrated pressure hull; crew survives through suits or local shelters.
1 — Rudimentary	Single pressure shell with minimal compartment framing. Limited acceleration and landing loads; one serious breach threatens most occupied volume.
2 — Basic	Zoned pressure hull with ordinary frames, local reinforcement, and basic fatigue monitoring. Handles routine docking, burns, and planetary operations within a narrow envelope.
3 — Standard	Multi-compartment working hull with load paths for rated drives, landing gear, cargo, and hardpoints. Breaches can be isolated; structural health is monitored at key nodes.
4 — Advanced	Smart-load structure actively redistributes stress, seals small fractures, and tolerates aggressive burns or repeated atmosphere cycles with reduced fatigue.
5 — Frontier	Adaptive metamaterial frame changes stiffness and geometry in flight, routes force around major damage, and can grow replacement members from feedstock.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Topology-controlled hull preserves habitable volume through impacts or accelerations that should pulp the ship; severed structure reknits around surviving compartments.

Armor

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Pressure skin only. Sandbags, cargo, patch plates, or suits provide whatever protection the crew can arrange.
1 — Rudimentary	Local bumper plates around crew, tanks, or reactor. Stops grit and glancing fragments, not sustained weapon fire.
2 — Basic	General micrometeor and debris armor with a few hardened sectors. Survives ordinary lane hazards and light small-craft fire long enough to disengage.
3 — Standard	Layered hull armor with sacrificial tiles, spall control, and deliberate protection of vital systems. Replaceable after moderate hits.
4 — Advanced	Reactive smart laminate shifts density and ablates in controlled layers; strong against kinetic, thermal, and directed-energy attacks across several sectors.
5 — Frontier	Field-coupled armor disperses impact and heat across the hull, regenerates protective layers, and changes response after identifying a weapon signature.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Causal or phase-managed shell diverts most incoming energy away from occupied space; only sustained strategic weapons reliably couple to the hull.

Maneuver drive

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No main drive. Tugs, tow lines, cold-gas bottles, or EVA thrusters move the hull.
1 — Rudimentary	Low-thrust orbital and docking propulsion. Long burns, poor abort authority, and little reserve for combat maneuver.
2 — Basic	Reliable in-system drive for transfers and landings on suitable worlds. Acceleration is modest; high-output operation is brief or maintenance-heavy.
3 — Standard	Sustained working-ship acceleration with controlled cruise, meaningful emergency output, and integrated attitude control.
4 — Advanced	High-efficiency drive supports multi-G burns, precision vectoring, rapid landing cycles, and graceful operation after losing an engine segment.
5 — Frontier	Extreme-energy propulsion provides warship acceleration with commercial endurance, plume control, and inertial shaping that keeps crew alive.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Near-instant vector change or inertia-managed thrust across a system without conventional propellant limits; local space notices and complains.

Reactor

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Batteries, fuel cells, hand generators, or shore power only. No sustained ship-scale generation.
1 — Rudimentary	Small generator supports essential lights, controls, and one major load at a time. Startup and balancing require local crew.
2 — Basic	Stable shipboard plant supports routine hotel loads and modest propulsion or industrial work, but peak loads compete sharply.
3 — Standard	Integrated primary reactor supports rated drive, life support, and normal mission systems with reserve for short peaks.
4 — Advanced	Compact high-output plant with rapid load following, strong containment, low waste heat, and continued operation after component loss.
5 — Frontier	Exotic conversion core produces strategic power density, recycles most waste, and can cold-start from stored seed energy in minutes.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Vacuum, dimensional, or equivalent source supplies effectively inexhaustible ship-scale power with containment—not fuel—as the only meaningful limit.

Power distribution / storage

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Extension leads, local cells, hand-thrown breakers, and no central load management.
1 — Rudimentary	Single main bus with basic breakers and small emergency batteries. One bus fault can black out most of the ship.
2 — Basic	Zoned distribution, manual cross-connects, surge protection, and enough storage for controlled shutdown or brief emergency loads.
3 — Standard	Redundant buses, automatic load shedding, buffered mission loads, and black-start storage for essential systems.
4 — Advanced	Solid-state routing predicts demand, isolates faults in milliseconds, and stores enough energy for drive, shields, or weapons through reactor transients.
5 — Frontier	Lossless or near-lossless grid carries enormous pulsed loads, self-reroutes around battle damage, and uses structural storage throughout the hull.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Power appears where required with negligible transmission loss or delay; damaged sections can draw through intact topology without a physical conductor path.

Reaction-mass / fuel systems

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Portable cans, drums, or no onboard propellant. Transfer is exposed and slow.
1 — Rudimentary	One tank set, simple pumps, crude gauging, and limited reserve. No processing beyond filtration.
2 — Basic	Baffled tanks, standard transfer manifolds, reserve isolation, and safe port refueling. Can handle one approved propellant grade.
3 — Standard	Zoned tanks, accurate mass accounting, cross-feed, emergency reserve, boil-off control, and routine scoop or dirty-fuel conditioning where fitted.
4 — Advanced	Multi-feedstock cracking and purification, fast transfer, self-sealing tanks, and active mass placement to preserve balance during combat burns.
5 — Frontier	Molecular sorting turns ice, gas, waste, and common volatiles into drive-grade feedstock; storage density and thermal control vastly exceed civil norms.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Closed-cycle mass recovery or direct mass conversion makes propellant endurance effectively limited by reactor and mission duration rather than tankage.

Navigation / flight controls

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Hand calculations, visual piloting, portable instruments, and local engine controls.
1 — Rudimentary	Basic attitude, docking, and beacon following. Course solutions require crew verification and current external fixes.
2 — Basic	Integrated in-system navigation, landing aids, traffic data, and limited autopilot for known routes.
3 — Standard	Reliable autonomous course planning, gate approach, collision avoidance, and degraded-mode control across ordinary commercial operations.
4 — Advanced	Predictive multi-body navigation, high-G combat control, blind landing, and safe flight after major sensor or thruster loss.
5 — Frontier	Real-time probabilistic pathfinding through chaotic hazards, hostile jamming, and relativistic traffic; anticipates viable maneuvers before threats commit.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Navigates unstable spacetime, unknown folds, or causally ambiguous routes with near-perfect arrival control and no external chart support.

Sensors

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Windows, suit instruments, handheld scopes, and whatever a port feed provides.
1 — Rudimentary	Short-range radar/lidar and basic thermal warning. Poor classification and little passive sensitivity.
2 — Basic	Commercial active/passive suite tracks traffic, terrain, weather, drive plumes, and obvious hazards in normal conditions.
3 — Standard	Multi-band fused sensors classify ships, map surfaces, support docking and combat awareness, and maintain tracks under moderate interference.
4 — Advanced	High-resolution passive arrays detect cold or masked targets, image interiors imperfectly, and recover useful tracks through heavy clutter or jamming.
5 — Frontier	Quantum, gravitic, neutrino, or equivalent arrays characterize distant reactors, concealed mass, and subtle biological or field activity across a system.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Resolves matter, energy, and spacetime events at strategic distance with predictive reconstruction of obscured objects and vanishingly few blind zones.

Comms / transponder / electronic warfare

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Signal lamps, physical message transfer, portable radio, or no legal transponder.
1 — Rudimentary	Local voice/data, fixed identity beacon, and basic distress signal. Encryption is weak or external.
2 — Basic	Licensed ship comms, standard encrypted channels, traffic handshake, and a compliant transponder with limited anti-jam measures.
3 — Standard	Long-range tightbeam, robust authentication, redundant transponder modes, fleet data links, and practical commercial EW warning.
4 — Advanced	Adaptive encryption, beam hopping, deceptive emissions, strong jamming, and identity compartmentalization without losing traffic access.
5 — Frontier	Low-probability-of-intercept communication, real-time hostile network exploitation, and convincing multi-ship electronic decoys across a battlespace.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Secure communication remains usable through ordinary distance, occlusion, and jamming limits; hostile sensors can be fed coherent false operational histories.

Computers / automation / security

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Paper, local switches, stand-alone instruments, and locks with keys.
1 — Rudimentary	Simple ship computer handles logs, alarms, and limited sequencing. Systems remain mostly local; security is passwords and physical access.
2 — Basic	Networked controls, maintenance diagnostics, routine autopilot, user permissions, and basic intrusion detection.
3 — Standard	Integrated ship management, autonomous routine operations, compartment security, resilient backups, and supervised expert systems.
4 — Advanced	Predictive maintenance, adaptive cyberdefense, damage-control coordination, and autonomous mission execution within strict command limits.
5 — Frontier	Trusted synthetic crew can improvise, negotiate system damage, deceive hostile code, and rebuild its own secure execution environment.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Ship intelligence models crew, threats, and machinery at near-perfect fidelity, coordinates systems faster than conscious command, and remains secure under direct strategic attack.

Hardpoints / fire-control / armament

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No structural weapon provision. Crew may fire portable weapons from an opening, which is exactly as clever as it sounds.
1 — Rudimentary	Empty hardpoint stubs or fixed local mounts with manual control. Little stabilization, ammunition handling, or target integration.
2 — Basic	One or more working light mounts with local or simple remote fire control; suitable for civilian defensive weapons.
3 — Standard	Integrated multi-mount fire control, stabilized tracking, safe magazines, and coordinated defensive or patrol-grade armament.
4 — Advanced	Distributed apertures, predictive targeting, rapid thermal management, and simultaneous precision engagement of many maneuvering threats.
5 — Frontier	Strategic beam, smart-munition, or field weapons reach across major battlespace distances and adapt effects to target defenses in real time.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Weapon system can impose catastrophic energy or geometry changes at extreme range with surgical discrimination; possession alters treaty maps.

Defenses / damage control

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Hand extinguishers, patch kits, pressure doors closed by muscle, and no active defenses.
1 — Rudimentary	Basic alarms, fire suppression in vital rooms, portable breach gear, and manual compartment isolation.
2 — Basic	Zoned suppression, pressure isolation, emergency pumps, basic shield or countermeasure sectors, and central casualty displays.
3 — Standard	Redundant damage-control loops, automated fire/breach response, active defensive coverage, and stocked repair stations.
4 — Advanced	Self-sealing services, repair drones, adaptive shields or countermeasures, and continued mission operation through multiple casualties.
5 — Frontier	Hull-scale field defense, autonomous reconstruction, decoy swarms, and predictive isolation before damage propagates.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Incoming damage is redirected, nullified, or repaired almost as fast as it occurs; destruction requires overwhelming the whole defensive ecology at once.

Life support / environment

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Suits, bottled gas, chemical toilets, and carried water. No habitable ship environment.
1 — Rudimentary	One pressure/air loop supports a small crew for short trips. Minimal recycling; weak species or contamination control.
2 — Basic	Recycles air and some water, heats and cools occupied spaces, and supports rated crew for routine voyages with regular consumables.
3 — Standard	Zoned atmosphere, high water recovery, quarantine modes, species-adjustable compartments, and weeks-to-months endurance.
4 — Advanced	Near-closed-loop ecology, precise local climates, rapid contaminant removal, and robust operation after multiple loop failures.
5 — Frontier	Self-balancing biosphere supports varied species for years, recovers almost all waste, and heals its microbial ecology after shocks.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Creates and maintains stable habitable environments from minimal feedstock, including alien atmospheres, with effectively indefinite closed-cycle endurance.

Medbay

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No facility. Primitive care from carried bandages, splints, herbs, pressure, and whoever can keep their hands steady.
1 — Rudimentary	Dedicated cot, sterile locker, monitors, drugs, and manual first aid. Can stop bleeding, splint injuries, and support evacuation.
2 — Basic	Diagnostic scanner and assisted surgery stabilize major trauma, close wounds, manage infection, and keep a critical patient alive to port.
3 — Standard	Reliable auto-surgery, imaging, blood and tissue support, intensive care, and routine treatment across the ship's registered species.
4 — Advanced	Regrows organs and limbs, repairs severe neural injury, clears most toxins and pathogens, and performs complex surgery with minimal staff.
5 — Frontier	Reconstructs bodies after catastrophic trauma, reverses advanced degeneration, restores damaged memory pathways, and adapts treatment to undocumented biology.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Rebuilds a complete living body from viable cells, restores an intact nervous identity from surviving biological structure, and returns the patient without transplant rejection or gross developmental error.

Mana-garden / biodome

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No dedicated living system. Potted plants or carried Life-Cells provide negligible local mana and no environmental support.
1 — Rudimentary	Small growth cabinet or shrine bed supports herbs and a faint mana pocket for brief ritual use. Fully dependent on imported nutrients and water.
2 — Basic	Sealed hydroponic room supports food supplements, medicinal plants, and intermittent low-mana work for a small crew.
3 — Standard	Integrated biodome sustains a ship-wide low-mana bubble, buffers air and humidity, and provides reliable herbs or produce with constant tending.
4 — Advanced	Diverse self-balancing ecology creates controllable mana gradients, supports demanding rituals, and recovers quickly from blight or environmental shock.
5 — Frontier	Engineered living biome concentrates life force without killing its ecology, seeds new biospheres, and keeps powerful awakened crews functional in deep void.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Portable living-world ecology generates stable full-mana conditions, restores collapsed ecosystems, and remains biologically coherent under extreme isolation.

Galley / food storage

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Cold ration locker, kettle, or personal heaters. No safe preparation or preservation system.
1 — Rudimentary	Hotplate, sink, small cold locker, and short-duration dry storage for a few people.
2 — Basic	Working galley, refrigeration, sanitation, and stores for routine crew meals; depends on regular provisioning.
3 — Standard	Efficient multi-species kitchen, controlled storage, inventory tracking, waste reduction, and months of varied preserved food.
4 — Advanced	Automated preparation, molecular safety screening, excellent preservation, and tailored nutrition from compact base ingredients.
5 — Frontier	Fabricates convincing fresh meals from recycled organics, preserves delicate food indefinitely, and handles exotic biochemistries without cross-contamination.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Converts generic feedstock into biologically exact cuisine for almost any species, including living cultures and medically precise nutrition, with negligible waste.

Habitation / common spaces

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Crew lives at workstations, in hammocks, or among cargo. No dedicated social or rest volume.
1 — Rudimentary	Shared mess nook and fold-down rest space; privacy, noise control, and recreation are afterthoughts.
2 — Basic	Dedicated common room with seating, table, entertainment, and tolerable lighting for the rated crew.
3 — Standard	Zoned social, exercise, and quiet spaces support long voyages without every disagreement becoming a docking incident.
4 — Advanced	Adaptive rooms reshape for work, recreation, therapy, and cultural needs; acoustic and environmental isolation are excellent.
5 — Frontier	Immersive environments, responsive architecture, and behavioral health systems maintain crews through years of isolation with little lost volume.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Habitation can provide convincing physical and sensory environments of arbitrary scale or culture while actively preserving long-term psychological health.

Crew quarters / sanitation

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Hot-bunking, privacy curtains, wipes, and portable waste containers.
1 — Rudimentary	Shared bunks, one basic head, limited wash water, and little species accommodation.
2 — Basic	Personal or paired berths, working toilet and washroom, lockers, and ordinary human-scale climate control.
3 — Standard	Private berths, redundant sanitation, good water recovery, noise control, and practical accommodations for registered crew species.
4 — Advanced	Individually controlled climate, gravity, sleep support, hygiene, and adaptive furniture with medical monitoring.
5 — Frontier	Quarters actively restore body and mind, reconfigure for radically different anatomies, and recycle all water and waste locally.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Each berth becomes a self-contained ideal habitat that can sustain, heal, and protect its occupant independently through shipwide catastrophe.

Cargo handling / storage

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Loose deck space, hand loading, ropes, and no rated restraints or environmental control.
1 — Rudimentary	Small hold with tie-downs, pallet access, and manual loading aids. Limited acceleration rating.
2 — Basic	Proper hold, powered ramp or lift, standard clamps, inventory zones, and safe handling of ordinary freight.
3 — Standard	Crane or loader system, smart restraints, configurable environmental lockers, accurate mass balance, and fast port turnaround.
4 — Advanced	Robotic handling, active inertial restraint, automated customs segregation, and support for hazardous or fragile cargo under combat maneuver.
5 — Frontier	Volume-dense or topology-assisted storage, autonomous cargo swarms, and molecular quarantine with near-zero handling loss.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Stores and retrieves cargo with negligible apparent volume or mass penalty while preserving exact environmental and temporal conditions.

Airlocks / docking / EVA

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Hull must be opened or depressurized. Docking depends on an external tender.
1 — Rudimentary	One simple lock or ramp vestibule, manual docking clamps, and portable EVA gear.
2 — Basic	Standard pressure lock, docking collar, suit hookups, exterior rails, and safe routine cargo or personnel transfer.
3 — Standard	Redundant locks, universal collar adapters, remote inspection, decontamination, and a proper EVA ready station.
4 — Advanced	Rapid-cycle locks, autonomous docking, rescue manipulators, hull-walking drones, and strong contamination isolation.
5 — Frontier	Field locks move personnel or cargo without conventional pressure cycling and dock safely to tumbling, damaged, or alien structures.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Matter or space interface permits seamless transfer through incompatible atmospheres, geometry, or motion without exposing either vessel.

Workshops / fabrication

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	Personal tool rolls and a clear patch of floor. Repairs are cannibalization and profanity.
1 — Rudimentary	Bench, vice, diagnostic meter, hand tools, and storage for common spares.
2 — Basic	Equipped mechanical/electrical shop can repair ship components and fabricate simple brackets, seals, wiring, and patches.
3 — Standard	Machine tools, electronics bench, controlled materials, and additive fabrication reproduce most routine parts from certified stock.
4 — Advanced	Multi-material fab produces precision drive, medical, sensor, and armor components; automated metrology catches bad work before installation.
5 — Frontier	Molecular manufacturing builds strategic components from raw feedstock, repairs exotic materials, and reverse-engineers undocumented hardware.
6 — Near-Miraculous	General fabricator can reproduce almost any nonliving ship component—including itself—from bulk matter and a verified pattern.

Rescue / escape

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No dedicated escape system. Crew relies on suits, distress calls, and reaching someone else's airlock.
1 — Rudimentary	Emergency suits, beacons, first-response stores, and limited refuge points. Escape still depends on crew action.
2 — Basic	Rated liferafts, pods, or a hardened refuge supports the full crew until rescue on normal routes.
3 — Standard	Redundant escape routes, launchable pods, autonomous distress navigation, and rescue supplies sized for all occupants plus guests.
4 — Advanced	Smart capsules extract injured crew, survive hostile reentry or deep-space drift, and evade debris or attackers.
5 — Frontier	Distributed survival shells preserve occupants for years, self-repair, rendezvous, and manufacture life support from local material.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Automatic system preserves every recoverable person through total hull loss and delivers them to a safe habitat across otherwise fatal distance.

Carried craft

C	Concrete capability
0 — Absent / Manual	No flight-capable carried craft. Ground loaders, carts, and EVA packs do not count.
1 — Rudimentary	One tiny tender, work pod, or unpressurized launch for local inspection and docking jobs.
2 — Basic	Pressurized shuttle or utility boat carries a small team between ship, station, and surface.
3 — Standard	Mission-capable launch with meaningful range, cargo or rescue fit, independent sensors, and routine atmospheric operation.
4 — Advanced	Fast modular craft handles combat insertion, survey, rescue, or freight with autonomous recovery and high survivability.
5 — Frontier	Carried craft has strategic propulsion, adaptive mission bodies, and performance rivaling ordinary independent ships.
6 — Near-Miraculous	Compact craft can unfold or fabricate a full mission vehicle, operate independently across systems, and reintegrate matter and data with the mothership.

Dependencies and upgrade constraints

Nothing upgrades alone

Before raising Capability, check every dependency below. Build Quality can improve some margins, but it cannot repeal mass, heat, geometry, biology, or customs law.

Constraint	What to check
Structure and thrust loads	Drive, armor, hardpoints, carried craft, tanks, and cargo gear all push force into the frame. Reinforce load paths before hanging expensive machinery from tired ribs.
Mass and center of gravity	Added armor, a garden dome, turret magazines, tanks, and workshops change handling. Rebalance tanks, landing gear, and flight software after any serious refit.
Volume and access	Hardware needs rooms, service clearances, ducts, magazines, quarantine gaps, and a path through the hull. If a replacement core cannot fit through a hatch, the yard cuts the ship open.
Power and pulse demand	Rate continuous load and peak load separately. Drives, shields, armor rigs, fabbers, medbays, and energy weapons may all work alone and still black out the bus together.
Heat rejection	Reactor output is useless when radiators, coolant, or phase sinks cannot dump the waste. Advanced systems usually move the bottleneck; they do not erase it.
Fuel, reaction mass, and consumables	More thrust needs mass flow. Better medbays need substrates. Gardens need nutrients and water. Weapons need magazines or cooling. Rescue pods need independent stores.
Data and control	Sensors need computers; fire control needs sensors; automation needs trusted actuators; advanced navigation needs charts and time references. New code on a rotten bus is still rotten.
Crew and doctrine	Capability assumes somebody can operate, maintain, and safely override it. Automation can reduce watchstanding, not accountability.
Compatibility	Species biology, atmospheres, electrical standards, software trust, docking collars, and ammunition families can block a nominally simple swap.
Legal and registry	Weapons, jump systems, Life-Cells, synthetic crew, medical reconstruction, transponders, and high-energy reactors attract permits or seizure. A system can fit physically and remain unusable in a legal port.
Supply chain	Frontier and Near-Miraculous kit may have no ordinary spares, no local calibration source, and one technician three gates away who hates you.
Mana ecology	A mana-garden is living infrastructure, not a capacitor with leaves glued on. Faster growth, higher extraction, Null proximity, disease, and reactor heat can destabilize it.

Common dependency chains

Maneuver drive: hull/structure → reactor → power distribution → reaction mass → heat rejection → flight controls.
Energy armament: hardpoint structure → reactor headroom → power storage → sensors → fire control → cooling → legal registration.
Missile armament: hardpoint structure → sensors/fire control → magazine volume → cargo handling → explosive safety.
Advanced sensors/EW: clean power → array geometry → computers → cooling → comms apertures → trained operators.
Advanced medbay: life support → sterile water/air → power storage → medical feedstock → species data → qualified supervision.
Mana-garden: pressure hull → life support → water/nutrients → lighting power → quarantine → botanist labor → distance from Null effects.
Carried craft: bay volume → structural attachment → fuel/charging → handling gear → airlock → rescue doctrine.
Higher acceleration: drive output → frame rating → cargo restraint → crew couches → med support → tank baffling. The weakest item sets the safe burn.

Upgrade procedure

Survey first. Record installed Capability, Build Quality, Condition, numerical loads, interfaces, and hidden yard changes.
Define the mission effect. State what the new Capability rung adds. “Better engine” is not a specification.
Map dependencies. Mark required supporting upgrades, displaced rooms, lost cargo, new crew jobs, and legal exposure.
Choose Build Quality deliberately. Improvised may be the only affordable path. That should change serviceability and integration, not magically lower Capability.
Install and integrate. Mechanical fit, software, pressure test, power test, heat test, and emergency isolation are separate jobs.
Commission under load. A dockside green light does not prove the system works during a 1.2 G burn with the galley, garden, armor rig, and fire-control bus awake.
Set Condition. New work begins Fresh only after complete commissioning. A used component normally enters at its surveyed Condition. A rushed refit can begin Serviceable or Worn.

Capability jump limits

A field crew can usually restore Condition or make a like-for-like replacement.
Raising Capability by one rung normally needs design work and at least one dependency upgrade.
Raising it by two or more rungs is a yard conversion: structure, utilities, software, and operating doctrine all change.
C5–C6 systems require access to the science, materials, and calibration that make them possible. Salvaging the shiny box is not the same as owning the system.
Build Quality cannot rise through maintenance alone. Moving from Improvised to Certified means rebuilding interfaces, documentation, inspection, and test coverage.
Never average subsystem ratings into one ship score. The ugly mismatch is where the story lives.

Verdigris — locked hull record

Registry and physical constants

Item	Canon value
Ship	Verdigris
Registry	VRD-7
Concord Hull Class	CHC II civilian independent mid-transport
Registry fuel-volume index	~72 H-tons
Internal hull volume	~200 displacement-tons
Length overall	~82 m
Decks	3
Legal crew minimum	3
Cruise thrust	0.5 G sustained
Redline thrust / emergency output	~1.2 G
Reaction-mass endurance	~3 days continuous torch, or weeks of coast-and-burn work
Main propulsion	Fusion torch; real reaction drive
Onboard jump drive	None
Hardpoints	2, both wired/available and empty; no turrets mounted
Signature feature	Sealed dorsal mana-garden under a reinforced glass dome
Medbay	Cracked human-calibrated auto-surgeon; manual mode and Talyra's herbs cover the gaps

Numerical values not listed above are Unsurveyed. This includes dry mass, cargo volume, tank volume by compartment, reactor output, bus voltage, radiator area, armor thickness, shield strength, sensor range, comms range, life-support endurance, berth count beyond documented rooms, airlock dimensions, workshop throughput, and escape capacity.

The ~1.2 G figure is Verdigris's locked emergency redline. Existing maintenance language for ≥1.5 G describes the generic threshold for guaranteed damage, not a safe Verdigris rating.

Physical section list

Deck A — dorsal / flight

Section	Status	Evidence and use
Cockpit / bridge — forward	Surveyed	Two human-scale seats, analog switches, physical throttles, circular radar, multi-pane viewport, comms and engine-telemetry aux panel. Ivan flies; Talyra backs him up.
Mana-garden — dorsal aft	Surveyed	Sealed reinforced dome; hydroponic troughs, grow lights, manual valves, drainage grating, herb racks, work table, environmental sensors. Produces the ship's low-mana bubble.
Garden access / service interface	Partly surveyed	Talyra's berth has the shortest route and is described with an adjacent hatch. Exact corridor, pressure door, and maintenance crawl geometry are Unsurveyed.

Deck B — living / medical

Section	Status	Evidence and use
Common room / galley — amidships	Surveyed	Galley counter, stove, refrigeration, dining table, lounge seating, starboard viewport, plant shelf, lockers, and a Jarvis charging alcove.
Elias's berth — port	Surveyed	Single cabin used for sleep, research, technomantic work, and badly supervised experiments. No proper fabrication plant.
Talyra's berth / armor bay — starboard	Surveyed	Former double berth with raised frame, powered-armor maintenance rig, diagnostic bench, tool board, herb drying, cool-pelts, and personal cold-air vent bleed.
Ivan's berth — aft	Surveyed	Private berth, weapons bench, rifle rack, exercise fittings, entertainment, and the ship's strongest local Null effect.
Medical bay — midline	Surveyed	Cracked table, auto-surgeon arms, monitors, human-biased scanner, sterile cabinets, expired patches, herb shelf, and garden-air canary plant.
Head / washroom	Canon, unsurveyed detail	A shared sanitation space exists. Fixture count, water recovery, Karthun accommodation, and exact location are Unsurveyed.
Deck B corridors / pressure divisions	Unsurveyed	Exact adjacency, doors, fire zones, escape routes, duct trunks, and pressure boundaries await a proper ship survey.

Deck C — working / cargo

Section	Status	Evidence and use
Engine room — aft	Surveyed	Shielded fusion core, analog gauges, physical levers, coolant and steam services, safety rail, lower sump, workbench, and rolling tool cart. Mundane engineering; no plants in the reactor room.
Cargo bay — aft ramp	Surveyed	Mag-clamps, cargo netting, overhead crane, yellow loader tug, drain grates, faded hazard stripes, and a powered landing/cargo ramp.
Ramp vestibule / airlock function	Partly surveyed	Ramp seals and pressure cycling are documented; grip rails were adapted for human and Karthun reach. Separate inner-door geometry is Unsurveyed.
Storage / ship systems spaces	Canon, unsurveyed detail	General storage and systems volume exists. Locker count, tank boundaries, pump rooms, bus trunks, and access routes are Unsurveyed.
Lower sump / machinery access	Partly surveyed	Visible beneath the engine-room rail and associated with steam/coolant service. Full extent and drainage routing are Unsurveyed.

Exterior and unsurveyed spaces

Section	Status	Evidence and use
Outer pressure hull and patch plating	Surveyed at working level	Mismatched yard skins, old scars, sacrificial shield tiles, half-peeled `VRD-7` registry decal, and recurring panel/seal maintenance.
Dorsal dome frame and panes	Surveyed at working level	Reinforced for the garden and Talyra's mass; known risks include rib seal weeps and impact cracking. Exact pane laminate is Unsurveyed.
Two hardpoint stations	Confirmed, internal details unsurveyed	Both empty. Conduit condition, fire-control interfaces, reinforcement drawings, and magazine routes require opening panels.
Reaction-mass tanks and feedstock cells	Location and numbers Unsurveyed	Capacity is represented by the locked endurance and ~72 H-ton registry index. Tank count, individual volume, and remaining wall life are unknown.
Radiators / heat rejection	Unsurveyed	Required by the fusion plant, but area, layout, deployment method, and spare capacity are not documented.
Landing gear / ground support points	Unsurveyed	Planetary ramp operations imply landing capability; geometry and load rating have not been locked.
Escape lockers / refuge points	Unsurveyed	Emergency suits are referenced. Count, size range, duration, beacon inventory, and refuge rating are unknown.
Void pockets, crawlways, and former owner changes	Unsurveyed	No complete as-built plan survives in current canon. Treat hidden volume as a survey result or story discovery, never free cargo space by assumption.

Verdigris — engineering inventory

Ratings describe the installed system. Parenthetical limits record what current Condition or missing survey data does to it.

Subsystem	Capability	Build Quality	Condition	Evidence / terse notes
Hull / structure	C3 Standard	Utility	Worn	Zoned three-deck pressure hull, rated working transport, two hardpoints, cargo ramp, landing operations. Patched plates, fatigue events, dome-ring stress, and recurring Wear.
Armor	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	General debris protection and replaceable shield/armor tiles; ice strikes can take a sector offline. Thickness and exact protection are Unsurveyed.
Maneuver drive	C3 Standard	Utility	Serviceable	Fusion torch sustains 0.5 G and reaches ~1.2 G emergency redline. Harder flight raises damage risk and burns reaction mass fast. Thrust in newtons and drive count are Unsurveyed.
Reactor	C3 Standard	Utility	Serviceable	Mundane fusion core carries drive, life support, and ordinary hotel load. Analog controls remain after a stripped digital retrofit. Output and reserve MW are Unsurveyed.
Power distribution / storage	C2 Basic	Improvised	Worn	Shared plant feeds garden, medbay, armor rig, and future weapons; peak loads compete. Feed flutter, capacitor spikes, flicker, and manual panels show thin integration. Storage capacity is Unsurveyed.
Reaction-mass / fuel	C3 Standard	Utility	Serviceable	~72 H-ton registry index; ~3 days continuous torch or weeks of coast-and-burn work. Bulk prop-H plus long-lived fusion feedstock. Tank map, scoop fit, and processing rate are Unsurveyed.
Navigation / flight controls	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	In-system flight, docking, gate approach, traffic/nav feeds, physical throttles, limited automation. Sticky controls, nav desync, relay faults, and manual-burn fallback.
Sensors	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	Commercial radar and flight awareness support traffic, approach, and hazard work. Radar ghosts and scan drift recur. Bands, range, and resolution are Unsurveyed.
Comms / transponder / EW	C2 Basic	Utility	Serviceable	Licensed traffic handshakes, bounty feeds, ship comms, long-range antenna, and registry beacon. Antenna shear can reduce long-range comms. Dedicated EW capability is not documented.
Computers / automation / security	C1 Rudimentary	Utility	Worn	Analog-heavy local controls, basic telemetry, alarms, feeds, and simple automation. Previous digital retrofit was stripped. Jarvis is a steward aboard, not proof of an integrated ship intelligence.
Hardpoints / fire-control / armament	C1 Rudimentary	Utility	Serviceable	Two structural hardpoints, both empty; no turrets, magazines, or locked weapon-grade fire control. Interfaces and conduit tests are Unsurveyed.
Defenses / damage control	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	Sector shield/armor tiles, pressure isolation, suppression cartridges, patch capability, alarms, and crew response. Much of the work is manual; cascade failures remain credible.
Life support / environment	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	Supports resident crew with recycled air/water and human-standard climate. Scrubber strain, CO risk, shared loops, humidity bleed, and poor Karthun comfort reduce margin. Endurance is Unsurveyed.
Medbay	C2 Basic	Utility	Worn	Assisted surgery, monitors, field stabilization, and manual care. Auto-surgeon table is cracked; arm #2 grinds; scanner assumes human geometry; some patches are expired.
Mana-garden / biodome	C3 Standard	Improvised	Serviceable	Retrofitted sealed dorsal ecology maintains a ship-wide low-mana bubble, herbs, produce, and environmental buffering. Needs constant labor and ₡650/week baseline supplies.
Galley / food storage	C2 Basic	Utility	Serviceable	Working stove, sink, refrigeration, ingredient storage, and real crew meals. Regulator and refrigeration failures are known maintenance risks. Capacity is Unsurveyed.
Habitation / common spaces	C2 Basic	Improvised	Serviceable	Dedicated lounge/mess with seating, table, music, viewport, plants, and briefing use. Mismatched furniture and patched lighting; useful, not luxurious.
Crew quarters / sanitation	C2 Basic	Improvised	Serviceable	Three private crew berths plus shared head/washroom. Talyra's double berth and raised frame are custom; local climate fixes are hand-built. Spare berth count and sanitation throughput are Unsurveyed.
Cargo handling / storage	C3 Standard	Utility	Worn	Class II hold, powered ramp, mag-clamps, nets, overhead crane, loader tug, and manifest handling. Tight mass headroom; clamps, crane, and hydraulics need watching. Cargo volume is Unsurveyed.
Airlocks / docking / EVA	C2 Basic	Improvised	Serviceable	Powered ramp/pressure interface, routine port access, docking operations, grip rails, and suit use. Universal collar fit, lock volume, suit count, and decon capability are Unsurveyed.
Workshops / fabrication	C2 Basic	Improvised	Serviceable	Engine-room bench/cart and Talyra's armor rig support mechanical, electrical, and exo repair; Elias adds field diagnostics. No documented machine shop or general fabricator.
Rescue / escape	C1 Rudimentary	Unsurveyed	Unsurveyed	Emergency suits and distress/repair practice are referenced. No confirmed pods, liferafts, rated refuge, or full-crew endurance figure. Survey before trusting it.
Carried craft	C0 Absent / Manual	N/A	N/A	No flight-capable carried craft documented. The yellow cargo loader is ground handling equipment, not a shuttle. Bay provision and future launch fit are Unsurveyed.

Verdigris bottlenecks

Power integration is weaker than the reactor. The core can run the ship, but the worn C2 distribution system makes simultaneous peak loads ugly. Armor-rig diagnostics already cause spikes. Energy weapons would join that argument.
The frame, restraints, and tanks set the burn—not the throttle stop. 0.5 G cruise is routine. ~1.2 G is the locked emergency redline and should trigger the established stress consequences. Cargo clamps and dome ribs are part of the acceleration envelope.
The garden is both mission system and living patient. It supplies mana and environmental buffering, but it consumes power, water, nutrients, labor, quarantine attention, and structural margin.
The medbay stabilizes; it does not restore. At C2, the cracked auto-surgeon can keep someone alive and perform assisted surgery. It cannot regrow a limb, repair major neural loss, or safely improvise Karthun anatomy without Talyra.
The ship is hardpoint-capable, not armed. Installing a turret requires a mount survey, fire-control work, power or magazine allocation, cargo loss, registration, and commissioning. Two empty rings do not shoot.
Automation is the quiet weak link. Analog controls are repairable, but low integration increases crew workload and makes high-capability add-ons harder to coordinate.
Rescue provision is not trusted until surveyed. “There are suits somewhere” is not an evacuation plan. Count them, fit them to bodies, test seals, inspect beacons, and find out what the previous owner pawned.

Sensible upgrade order

This is not a shopping list. It is the order that avoids buying a glorious component the ship cannot feed.

Survey hull load paths, hardpoint conduits, tanks, heat rejection, escape gear, and main buses.
Restore power distribution from Worn to Sound; add measured peak-load buffering.
Restore navigation, sensors, armor tiles, cargo restraints, and damage control to Serviceable or Sound.
Overhaul the medbay within C2, including a Karthun-safe manual package and non-expired stock.
Harden life support and isolate garden humidity from bridge and medbay loops.
If arming the ship, fit a low-demand defensive package first. A sandcaster and missile rack ask less of the reactor than a beam weapon and fit the Verdigris's legal, cargo, and power reality.
Add better automation only after documenting the analog interfaces. Replacing understandable switches with one sealed mystery computer is not an upgrade. It is a future hostage situation.