Generation Ships

Generation Ships are archaic star cruisers used for colonization purposes, utilized by civilizations that lack standard Light Drives.

Capabilities
Generation ships are fairly standard star cruisers, usually equipped with sub-light engines rather than a Light Drive. However, the all main functions of generation ships go to the well-being of the crew, which often number to the hundred thousands. As the classification implies, the crew of the generation ships are colonists themselves, and create families aboard the ships, with their children being taught how to operate the ship and becoming its new crew when they come of age. Due to the lack of proper Light Drives, vast interstellar distances are incredibly lengthy, and thus the colonists that complete the mission are the descendants of the original crew. Generation ships are often stocked with several decades worth of non-perishable foodstuffs for the initial phases and in case of emergencies, nutrient-creating replicators for some of the last models to be made, and up to several rooms meant for farming food. Generation ships are rarely fitted with defense systems beyond shields and armor, but often have a trained or robotic security team, and sometimes point-defense systems, although none have been recorded with turbolasers or other large weapons. Conditions aboard a generation ship are quite comfortable to the colonists in question, often made up of a single species, although many crew areas can be cramped in order to fit all needed tech and assets. Generation ships commonly have several recreational decks and can even sport starliner-like living quarters, although these are usually reserved for the commanding officers. Piloting systems are often automated, but more precise maneuvers and other works can be done by organic pilots. Their sub-light flight through realspace often makes their journeys quite risky, and so courses are plotted through empty space, with organic pilots taking up the final runs to the destination world. There are a few glaring flaws in the design of generation ships, the first one being the crew. The mission, which is recorded in the ship's computers and taught to newly born children at a young age, completely relies on the current operating crew. If any generation chooses to deviate from the path chosen at the mission's start, the mission will be a failure. If any complications arise mid-flight and kill passengers, repopulating may become an issue. Too few starting colonists may result in under-population and a lack of genetic diversity. Too many colonists could result in overpopulation that would overwhelm the ship, and so the population must be tightly controlled at every stage of the journey. Prolonged effects of microgravity on the older generation ships lacking proper artificial gravity generators could also be harmful to the crew. Time dilation was a very common problem due to the lack of relativity shields, and although it was not harmful to the crew, the changing interstellar state around them would pose many problems, thus only making the use of generation ships truly viable in the early years of colonization.

Background
Generation ships were developed by the Titanians in the early years of interstellar space travel, before the Old Titanian Empire. In this time, hyperspace-faring Light Drives were not developed yet, with only sub-light engines being created. Because of this, ships would take hundreds to thousands of years to cross vast interstellar distances, even at speeds nearing the speed of light. Therefore, generation ships were developed in order to solve that problem by having their crew continue to reproduce and have their offspring take up command of the ship. Fleets of generation ships were used to colonize interstellar space, carrying over to other space-faring species. Generation ships were starting to be replaced with more effective cryoships shortly before the creation of Light Drives. On Earth, generation ships were used by civilian refugees who did not have access to the military-exclusive Light Drives. One such craft, the S.L. Jyist, made it to what is now known as No Man's Space via a hyperspace anomaly. Most of the other crafts did not make it very far, although some were never found again, presumably launched into deep space by other hyperspace anomalies that resulted from excessive Imperial use of hyperdrills.