Kuat Shipyards

Kuat Shipyards

Organizational Information
Founder(s)	The Ten
Managed by	The Fehran Economic Development Group
Primary Role	Intragalactic Shipbuilding and Shipping
Major Products	Numerous, mainly starships

“At Kuat Shipyards, we’re driven to excel. It is this uncompromising commitment to
performance that has made us the largest shipbuilding corporation in the universe.”-Former KS advertisement

Kuat Shipyards or KS was the largest shipbuilding corporation in the Atorian Empire, and second only to the Robotech Factories, at the outbreak of the Robotech Wars. It was actually a ring station around Fehran.

Kuat Shipyards mainly sold its products to the Atorian Empire, and the Tiresian Empire after the anexxation. Kuat Shipyards did not sell exclusively to the Empires, however; Many planetary governments purchased its weapons for the purposes of defending their planet from the war. All this made Kuat Shipyards one of the most famous corporations in the Galaxy.

Founding and early history

Kuat Shipyards was founded in the early days of the Atorian Empire by a group of Fehran aristocrats, collectively reffered to “the Ten”. These merchants, led by the Kuat Family, joined together with the intent to create the largest, most efficient shipyard in the galaxy. They hired terraformers to change the planet Fehran into a paradise world while engineers designed and built the first of the complexes. These, once complete, were joined together to create the ring-link orbital complex.

After early difficulties, the shipyard grew rapidly in both size and prestige, and by 5,000 AA it was known as a first-class galactic ship builder. In the millennia that followed, the shipyards became noted for building ships that served in the Atorian Navy throughout both the Old and New Wage Wars.

With the rise of the Robotech Empire, however, Kuat’s power diminished significantly, and KS lost it’s status as the top tier shipyard; That title would now held by the Robotech Factories. Kuat set its sights on becoming the biggest civilian shipbuilder, and engaged in a vicious competition with the Karbbonarans. Between price wars, industrial espionage, and even more underhanded tactics, both sides suffered severe losses, but KS eventually won the greater part of the market share and Karbonarran Industries was forced to sell some of their assets.

Expansion and Investment

KS quickly earned a reputation as a predatory company. Besides Core Galaxy, Kuat rapidly bought up a number of other small ship builders, and built factories on a number of worlds outside the Kuat Sector. Belderone, Karavis, Rothana, and Xa Fel were among many worlds to contribute to the KS construction effort, either directly or through subsidiary corporations such as Rothana Heavy Engineering and Ubrikkian Industries. KS also had a tendency to create subsidiaries to focus on specific markets:

Kuat Leisure focused on civilian vessels.

Kuat Vehicles built airspeeders, landspeeders and speeder bikes.

Kuat Systems Engineering was responsible for starfighter design and light patrol craft.

Chempat Engineered Defenses, owned jointly with CEC, designed and built starship shield generators and sensor arrays.

KS was also a significant member in several commercial and trade groups and also had two members on the Mercantile Republic Economic Co-Prosperity Committee. Kuat Shipyards was also a founding member of the Corporate Authority. In exchange for an investment of 50 quadrillion credits, half in direct gifts of credits and equipment, the other half in the purchase of CA stock and bonds, KS received a position as a signatory sponsor, allowing it complete access to advertise and sell its products in the Corporate Authority, as well as extremely discounted prices for bulk goods and raw materials which were necessary for the large scale construction KS often undertook.

Robotech Wars, from first Treaty to final Capitulation.

In the centuries prior to the Robotech Wars, Kuat Shipyards constructed a number of large warship designs, including several massive Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts as part of the Kuat Sector Defense Fleet.

Prior to the Invasion of Tirol, it was expected that KS would support the Tiresians; However, the Atorians wisely backed away when they saw the extent of the Invid Fleet, and twice so when the few Atorian Warships that happened to be over Garuda when that world was invaded were destroyed at will. Those ships were witnessed to throw everything they had at the Invid, and did nothing resembling damage. Kuat itself was secretly contacted by the Sentinel Worlds to build a fleet of huge transports, as part of a plan to evacuate what could be of the various Protoculture Worlds (those directly under the control of Tirol). Some senators later claimed that the Storm Fleet contract was an act of treason, but the Robotech Elders decreed that there was no conflict of interest, and ordered the matter dropped.

Kuat Shipyards took measures to protect their facilities by increasing the numbers of security personnel, upgrading their sector forces (including a second production run of MANDATOR-Class Dreadnoughts, the MANDATOR II-Class) and engaging in an arms race with Neimoidia, scattering massive minefields around their respective sectors, and cutting off a section of the Hydian Way to traffic.

The Robotech Wars

The schedule for the four Dreadnoughts would be radically altered as a result of the rise of Robotech Empire; The EXECUTOR at Fondor was finished only six months later, with the second ship, named LUSANKYA, completed shortly after. The other two ships were given to admirals personally chosen by the Empress.

With EXECUTOR devastating a number of insurgent group’s bases (especially ammo depots), the Robotech Empire ordered an increase in production of these massive ships. KS built a majority of the ships in their own facilities, often rushing them out of dock mostly completed and sending them to smaller facilities for finishing work. This allowed a higher rate of production than otherwise possible, as there were a limited number of slipways capable of holding a ship the size of an EXECUTOR-Class.

Besides Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, and Dreadnoughts, Kuat continued to receive huge orders for smaller capital vessels from the Atorian Empire, and some orders for purely civilian vsls from the Robotech Empire. The Atorian Navy was augmenting its forces, and Kuat was the prime provider for their capital ships. New designs were created during this time to counter the actions of the insurgents; However, some insurgents cleverly began raiding Atorian convoys; As a result, the Star Galleon-Class Freighter was developed, specifically designed to meet the insurgent raids. The engineering blueprints for the Star Galleon-Class were later usurped by the Robotech masters and developed in the QUILTRA QUELEUAL-Class.

Several more special projects were begun as well, notably the ECLIPSE-Class, a superlaser-armed Dreadnought. Despite these new projects, KS was still able to produce IMPERIAL-Class ships at a high rate, allowing the Atorian Navy to reach a strength of at least 250,000 of these ships. It was these vsls that would bear the brunt of the REF’s power during the UWA/Atorian War.

Kuat of Kuat

During the Atorian/IPA(UWA) War, Kuat Shipyards was led by Kumat of Kuat (family). A moderately incompetent bureaucrat, Kumat was wise enough to realize a good servant when she found one, and assigned her eunuch slave Kuat as the chief of operations. Kuat, a technically minded slave, made every effort to keep KS independent of the Atorian Empire proper; His greatest fear was nationalization, to the point where he believed that the Inter-Planetary Alliance was the better choice. Only pragmatism kept him loyal to the Empire, as the Atorian Empress’ would quickly crush any attempt by Kuat to join the Alliance.

Pragmatism also guided many of the decisions made by Kuat during his tenure as de facto head of the company; Shortly after the Battle of Nivay, KS was under siege from a number of directions. The Empress were suspicious of Kuat’s motives in refusing to bid on several new warships that would, they believed, equal the REF’s capabilities. The reason he ‘advised’ Kumat to refuse to bid on the new ships was that they would place the shipyards squarely in the Empire’s pocket; However, the reasoning he expressed to her was that it would potentially replace a large number of capital warships, which would result in a severe decrease in profits for KS. In response to this, Empress SITOR (who was secretly the leader of the criminal gang Bright Night) was making a play for control of KS itself, and the Alliance had recently made a massive assault on the shipyard facilities to draw Imperial ships away from other, softer targets around the Empire.

Kuat (through Kumar) managed to respond to all of the threats; He placated the Empress’ by having KS absorb an unplanned cost overrun in a series of Battlecruisers, and set into motion a plan that would implicate SITOR in the RAU-185.4.2 massacre, hopefully setting the Alliance and bright Night against one another. This plan failed however when the Fetts intercepted the transmissions, along with the Kuati noble KADEES. Kuat began an effort to destroy the Fetts to destroy the evidence, but cancelled that effort when SITOR was murdered by her own Lieutenant in Bright Night, as the attempted treason could never be traced back to him.

As the war progressed, Kuat observed the REF’s actions on occupied worlds; As they forced the Atorians off, they would occupy specifically the shipyards, drive yards, and other militry factories. Because of this, he became increasingly paranoid, to the point where he ordered the shipyards to be wired with explosives.

His suspicion was merited; His head of security, Chief Kodir of KUHLVULT, had been recruited by the Empress to take over the stations. The Alliance had stationed a squadron of Deltas in the shipyards, disguised as cargo in the hold of an Atorians freighter (the REF had actually destroyed the freighter early in the war, then sent an exact duplicate in her place) to watch over the system and ensure that the Atorians did not receive their new heavy warships; The plan was to attack the dockyards as soon as the first one was ready for space trials. Kodir offered a deal with the UWA- If they helped her take control of Shipyards, she would effectively hand the station over to the Alliance.

Kuat learned of the deal, and decided not to allow anyone to have the shipyards- he realized that if the station were taken over by the UWA, the Atorians would destroy the station, and even if they failed, the Alliance would become entrenched and the de facto owners of the station. He activated the self-destruction of the shipyard facilities. However, members of the Fetts deactivated the explosives, and Kuat committed suicide. The explosions ended, with 80% of the docks remaining intact.

Only a year later, the UWA returned to Kuat; After the Battle of Salamaka, the UWA Ackbar Fleet fought a vicious campaign against the Home Fleet to capture the station; In response to heavy losses, the Imperial fleet pulled back to regroup. The UWA fleet took the opportunity to strike at the shipyard itself. The short but intense battle suffered the Atorians a major blow, with the UWA in control of the shipyards.

With the final victory of the UWA, several purely punitive measures were taken against the Atorians; The worst of the worst was the destruction of the Kuat Shipyards. Obstentively the station was demolished due to the damage caused by Kuat’s demolition charges; However, everyone knew the real reason was to deny the Ators the visual example of their former strength. The station was by a single RIN DERETA-Class T’sentrædi Monitor converted to a self-sustaining ship. The spacefold drives and all weapons systems with a range greater than ten miles or rated capable of destroying a starship were removed, and the Ators were restricted to “BLUE SECTOR” (compartments with blue bulkheads; doors to restricted areas were painted RED to avoid confusion).

New Kuat Station

KS orbital shipyards.

Construction and Facilities

The actual Kuat Shipyards are a collection of former starships, most of them T’sentrædi, connected together like the old station.They make up a solid ring, called the Orbital Array (like the old station), that surrounded the planet Kuat itself. These stations are split into smaller units, designated as slipways, offices, machine shops, factories, drydocks, or apartments for workers. Most Kuati employees (most of them Fehrans) live within this ring, setting foot on the surface of the planet below once a year for a month. The orbital array is lightly armed, sufficient to deal with pirates or small warships, though anything above a frigate is beyond the capabilities of the array’s defenses. these threats are dealt with by REF Warships, most notably the locally-constructed BREETIA TULL-Class Ultra-Dimensional Fortress FEHRAN SURVEYOR (UDF-221).

Kuat’s two moons are used for weapons and drive testing, to prevent damage to the main facilities or planet in case of any accidents. While the orbital array contains the most important shipyards, they are far from the only ones. A collection of subordinate stations, docks, and repair facilities umbilicaled to the station itself making up the bulk of KS’s construction capabilities.

Besides starships and vehicles, KS produced a line of planetary defense weaponry, including ion cannons, turbolasers, and magnapulse weaponry. These products were advertised as “¡The first, last, and only line of defense your planet will ever need!” Under the terms of the Capitulation, however, these factories were closed (some were re-tooled to other products).

Kuat slipways utilize a unique method to build large capital ships quickly; To maximize productivity, the hulls of ships under construction were wrapped in an airtight shroud, allowing workers to avoid wearing bulky space suits. This shroud was also part of the launching ceremony for a new ship. The work crew was evacuated, and the atmosphere ignited, burning the material away. The ash would settle on the ship until it moved, when it would be shaken off and the new vessel emerged, clean and tempered. However, this is only PART of the story; The ship that emerges from the bubble is in fact only about 25% complete. All but one exterior hatch is closed and sealed, with even the mechanical equipment necessary to open them uninstalled. Only the most basic or bulky equipment (spacefold, system drives and their specific control mechanisms, etc), are installed at the time of launch. The ship is then transited at a slow bell to a spacedock where finishing work is conducted. The Fehrans conceived this method, but the Robotech masters didn’t like it, and since the method wasn’t mentioned nor practicable to the Robotech Factories (no external facilities), Terra didn’t learn of the method until the war (though they did learn of it well before the Battle of Fehra).

Security

Kuat Shipyards security has a long and convoluted history of independent and governmental defenses. In the centuries up until the Robotech Wars, the Fehran Sector was protected by a large defense fleet, made up of KS vessels up to the mighty MANDATOR-Class.

During the Robotech Wars, these defense forces were built up and upgraded, and huge minefields scattered around the sector to dissuade attack. Despite this, Fehra lost its defense fleet in a single battle. After an incident involving the near defection of the Home Fleet, the Robotech decided to nationalize all sector and system defense fleets into the Tiresian Navy. Fehran’s fleet was made up of a disproportionate number of heavy modern warships, and became a major addition to the Tiresian Fleet.

Despite this, Fehran began to rebuild its defense force. Kuat Shipyards made an arrangement with the Empire to provide its own security; Again, ships bearing the emblem of KS patrolled the system. These ships were used in the bombing raid on the Dune Sea in an attempt destroy the Fetts after they attempted to betray the Empire towards the close of the Atorian/UWA War.

Despite the deal, the Imperial fleet became nervous about increasing raids, and stationed several ships near the station to provide a rapid response. (The Destroyer TYRANNY was one such ship.) Commanding the Imperial forces on Kuat was Captain Anton KALE, an unconventional officer who volunteered for the assignment.

After the Fall of Fehra, the UWA took full control of Fehra’s defenses, including the station. Fleet 221, anchored by UGS FEHRAN SURVEYOR (UDF-221), are stationed in the system at all times. These defenses are greater than the forces defending Sol, Azumption, and Optera. To date, there has not been a major threat to the system, though minor threats are constant. All the vsls were produced in-system, and therefore are considered both REF and RDF; A minor bending the specific terms of the Capitulation to permit Fehrans to participate in their own self-defense.

Kuat Traffic Control

Kuat Traffic Control is a highly sophisticated in both the manner and method, both reduced the number of ships traveling in the Kuat System and increasing security by a vast degree. The system was based on a concept of staging areas. Three stations, each several miles across, were positioned far outside the Fehran System.

Each of the three ports was assigned a role. Fehra Passenger Terminal handled all civilian travel to and from Fehra, Freight Terminal manages the flow of goods and materiel into and out of the system, and the Transfer Post stages all military operations in the system, as well as for deliveries of warships. All information on the staging systems for the Imperial port is classified, but it can be confirmed that militry vsls and personnel transfer into and out of the system via Transfer Post.

Once in the system, all traffic to and from the four ports is controlled by Fehran Central Authority, though during combat situations, warships defending the system can usurp traffic control (typically just instructing all non-militry vsls to fold away from the system, under risk of being fired upon by both sides). Ships inside the system were sent to a number of nav points, and then routed to their final destination within the system.