FireBall Drive class ship

[Jon]

FireBall Drive class ship

History
The Fireball class of ships were used during the early days of Colonial solar system exploration. They use a “FireBall” Drive which gives the ships a tremendous amount of thrust.  The Fireball drive was a direct competitor to the Firefly drive and had similar capabilities. Eventually both drives fell out of favor with the advent of Warp and FTL Drive technology.  This particular FireBall equipped ship was the main research ship for the CIA, (Colonial Institute of Astrophysics) but was taken out of service when a Warp ship was donated to the Institute. It sat for many years and fell into disrepair as it was slowly scavenged for parts that could be easily sold on the Colonial Shopping Network. Eventually it was purchased and converted into a Luxury Yacht by William “Squeaky” Gates the founder of MaxiSoft Systems which provided the main operating system for the Skynet Defense Network used to protect the colonies from invasion. MaxiSoft Systems fell on hard times when it was found that their much touted Panorama OS was easily hacked and required frequent updates and Gates eventually sold the ship at auction for a tenth of what it was worth.
 
Operational notes.
The ship consists of two sections, a Main Section which houses the FireBall drive and living quarters and a smaller “nose cone” Lander which can be used to make planet fall. Although the Main Section is a fully functioning space craft it is not advised to use it in atmosphere without the Lander.

The FireBall drive can best be thought of as a thrust enhancer or multiplier and only works in conjunction with the main thruster.   
   
When the Lander is attached to the Main Section the main section has control so you have to switch focus to the Main Section after attaching. While attached I shift the cockpit view to the Lander so it looks like you are flying from the front of the ship. When the Lander is not attached you are seated in the top bubble cockpit on the main section.

You have to be aligned and within 1 meter to attach to the Main Section. If you fly though the Main Section during an dock attempt it means that you were not within meter of the center of the dock or that you forgot to arm the auto attach with Ctrl J. The auto attach can only be set from the Lander. The Main Section has no command for attaching the Lander. If you prefer to pilot the Main Section during attachment you first need to enable auto dock from the Lander.
 
Both the Lander and main drive are fleet compatible..

Keys:
Lander
G: Landing gear.
Ctrl G: Toggles view between cockpit and docking which is handy when trying dock to the Main Section.

J: Launches from Main Section, Battlestar or Flatbed.
Ctrl J: Arms the auto attach for the main section or lands you on the Flatbed.

The docking port is on the back of the ship.

The Lander is a Raptor type for attachment in the Battlestar.

Main section
G: Landing gear.
J:  Launches from Battlestar or Flatbed.
Ctrl J: lands you on the Flatbed.
Ctrl B: Airbrake
Ctrl F12: Enables or disables the FireBall drive.


Fun effect.
Go to external view  and set the camera looking back at the ship from the front.  Take off from a ground base, point up at about 60 degrees and press Ctrl-F12 to enable the FireBall drive.