ROBOTECH Technical Files
by Pieter Thomassen, with Rob Morgenstern and Peter Walker

Designation:

(original): Unnamed class fold capable colonisation vessel.
(refit) : Azashar
class general purpose vessel.

Robotech Masters
Mothership - Side ViewMothership - Top View
Naval Separator
HomeAircraftArmor/WeaponMechaNavalVeritech

Origin:

Design :
Builders:

Names and disposition:

Ship's Complement:

Mothership - Top View

Dimensions:

Propulsion Systems:

Endurance and mobility limits:

Weapon Systems:

  • Makral Yver 258 Reflex cannon (1): This weapon, which forms a large part of the lower forward bow of the ship, fires a very powerful particle beam to an effective range of 300,000 km. The effects against planets are equal to the heat and blast effects of the detonation of a fusion weapon of 90 megatons, if fired at full power. However, the rate of fire was measured in minutes between salvo's rather than seconds even if the ship was at full power levels.
    If utilized against starships, the largest vessels can be destroyed with the leakage of the beam. A direct hit will vaporize most of the target vessel. The weapon can also be set to a wider dispersal. While not nearly as effective as a tight beam against warships, it is capable of clearing a wide area of fighters and other mecha.
    Note that at the time of the Second Robotech War progressive protoculture generator failure gave most vessels a maximum yield of 50-100 kilotons.
Tirolian Particle Cannon
  • Makral Ditrosil 12 particle cannon (930): The Ditrosil 12 cannon is a particle beam weapon with a distinctive shape, much like a Terran ornamental candle. The cannon can fire in two modes: one with a rate of fire of 6 shots per minute and a yield of 460 GJ, or one with a near continuous fire and a yield of 150 MJ. In the former mode, up to one hundred of the Ditrosil 12 cannons could concentrate their fire on a target area of a few meters across, in effect simulating a large Zentraedi anti-ship cannon. In the latter mode, the cannons are typically used to augment medium-range anti-mecha firepower. The effective range for both modes is 300,000 km.

Point Defense Battery
  • Makral Taranoul 103 particle cannon (1200): This cannon formed the standard close-in weapon system of the Tirolian fleets. The cannons are mounted on an elevated structure in batteries of three cannons each. The triple batteries are distributed around the ship, with each aspect having at least 50 unmasked at all times. The Taranoul system has an effective range of 45 km against small targets, a practically continuous rate of fire and a power output of near 3 MJ/s at full power.

Electronics:

Mothership launching Assault Carrier

Mecha and Air Group Complement:



Design Notes:

Mothership - top view

The Mothership was a gargantuan mass of metals, ceramics and organics, massing as much as 350 Macross class battlefortresses. The main hull was shaped in an irregular hexagonal platform, with the longitudinal side far larger than the other four sides. On top of the hull were two rather distinct features: a round pyramid on the forward portion of the ship, and a large elevated rectangle capped by two sloping planes. The latter feature gave the impression of a roof built on top of the vessel. The rest of the surface was not flat, but resembled very much the streets and stone canyons of a city. However, there were no windows or portholes present. Under the hull were three features of the ships, two hyperspace sensor horns and a large cone of metal which was actually the hangar and docking area for the larger sub-vessels.

Mothership - Engineering Center

The drives of the Mothership were unusual, as indicated above. The Tirolian scientists had perfected an efficient reactionless drive and installed this in each Mothership. However, as was proven over Earth, the shielding of this drive was not ideal, and the downing of the Robotech Master's flagship on Earth caused emergency modifications to the other ships of the fleet. In addition, the energy demands of this drive system far outstripped the generating capability of the class, even if all the internal space was to be converted into Reflex furnace chambers. Consequently, the ships stored a large amount of energy, built up over a long period of time, and discharged these into the drive units. The technological basis of this capacitator system is classified, but basic physics, and what information concerning this system is declassified, would suggest that the energy was stored in the form of anti-matter.

The armaments were impressive as well, with almost 200 Roil assault corvettes, tens of thousands of Bioroids, and a ship-to-ship armament second to none. The latter included a Reflex Cannon of the larger variety, numerous anti-ship cannons, and over a thousand anti-mecha cannons which proved to be frightfully effective against the Southern Cross's RDF forces. Added to all this were the formidable passive defenses of the hull itself and the force-fields that came with it.

Security Command Center

Internally, no two ships were identical, and only some broad layout details can be pointed out. The residential sections of the ship occupied the upper decks of the main hull, with the command and control sections underneath them. The lower parts of the hull were relegated to engines, storage sites and industrial purposes. The two horns on the underside formed the fold sensors, and the mentioned upper deck features were part research laboratory spaces and secondary command centers. As much of the internal hull could be restructured (originally for damage control purposes), any detailed description of the internal lay-out of any vessel must by necessity be placed within a certain timeframe. Outside said frame, the description would have become invalid due to the constants reshuffling and refitting done by the ships' commanding Triumviroid.

History:

The Motherships started their lives as trans-light colony ships during the first Tirolian colonization wave, centuries before the advent of Robotechnology. In those times, fold technology was still primitive, and the fold drives of that time were all extremely large and inefficient. In addition, the total mass that could be folded was bound by an upper limit, and the colony ships were built right up to this limit. As much of the internal space and total mass of these vessels was reserved for the fold drives, their cargo capacity was far less than their size would lead one to expect. However, inefficient as they were, twenty-five of these vessels were built and used to establish the first Tirolian colonies. Later on, when more advanced fold engine designs became available, and protoculture power sources also became common, the colony ships were all mothballed, as they were utterly obsolete. However, they all had very substantial internal spaces, and because of Tirolian design practices, had very thick and sound hulls. Thus, when the Elders decided to emigrate from the Tirolian surface, they chose to strip the colony vessels of their gigantic fold drives, and use the freed-up space to install the latest in starship technologies. These new drives and other machinery were relatively so small, that the vessels all had large areas of free space left over, an extremely rare occurance onboard starships.

When the Invid and the Ci'Vonian rebels and their renegade Zentraedi armies (known to the Masters as the Disciples of Zor) began their fold-guerilla campaigns against the Robotech Empire, there was little that could be done in the beginning, owing to the fact that a fold jump could not be tracked. The Tirolian answer to this were the hyperspace sensors, which could track all fold movements (though with accuracy fast dimishing with range) within 30,000 lightyears. However, these hyperspace sensors were extremely large, and the only vessels large enough to mount the required two antennae per ship were the Motherships. Thus all were refitted with the large horn-like sensors. Using this technology, the Masters managed to track and defeat the disciples of Zor at their bases, and also managed to keep a check on the Invid, although they never subdued them entirely.

Mothership in low orbit

At this time, the Motherships were also equipped with the extremely heavy weapons suites discussed above. This later caused heavy casualties among the Armies of the Southern Cross, when the Tirolians were forced to travel to Earth and do battle themselves over the last viable protoculture seeds. Only nine vessels were at that time still powered up enough to function, the others being depleted or cannibalized long before the fleet reached Earth-space. One Mothership was destroyed when the Hannibal rammed and self-destructed inside her, the Tirolian flagship was destroyed when a mecha pilot took out the main engineering computer. Another ship was destroyed over the site where New Macross had once stood. The force of that blast spread the spores of the Flower of Life across the Earth. A fourth ship crash-landed in the Skagerrak, and within years resembled an island of the Norwegian coast. The hulk provided many sorely needed resources to the European Resistance in their fight against the Invid. The other ships were destroyed in space.

Spread through several galaxies, only powerless hulks were left. One of these hulks was recovered by REF troops in the early 2040's. The REF scientists immediately recharged the powerplants with fresh seeds, spent a few years figuring out the controls, and then folded it to the solar system, where it is still today, serving as an orbital base while research teams try to decipher the technology still on board. All other vessels are damaged beyond repair, or simply missing.

See additional design notes.

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Content by Pieter Thomassen, with Rob Morgenstern and Peter Walker
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Copyright © 2001, 2000, 1997, 1995 Robert Morgenstern, Pieter Thomassen, Peter Walker