The Red Knight

One of the largest man-made objects ever created, the Red Knight was the first Jupiter-class mining ship to roll out of the Phobos shipyards.

STATISTICS:

• LENGTH: 9 km (5.6 miles)

• WIDTH: 3 km (1.9 miles)

• DEPTH: 2,600 levels (3 miles/4.83km)

• CREW: 1,169 + one hologram

• CRUISING SPEED: 200,000 mph  

Owned and bank-rolled by the Jupiter Mining Corporation (JMC), the Red Knight is crewed by members of the Space Corps, under exclusive contract, for two year (minimum) tours of duty to strip mine brave new worlds of raw materials.

The JMC provides the ships, food and other consumable supplies to the hired crew - who are trained and disciplined by the Space Corps.

Originally planned as part of a massive fleet for deep space exploration and salvage, cost cutting meant the second ship - The Red Dwarf - was considerably smaller and subsequent craft - The Red Rogue, Red Elf and Red Mage - remained on the drawing board of designer Ernesto G Gygax.

The Red Knight, with its colour-coded corridors, boasts:

• 11th Generation A.I. (Tim), with an IQ of 8.000
• a state-of-the-art AR (artificial reality) Suite;
• a multi-acre botanical garden;
• metro transport system, running both inside and outside craft;
• Xpress Lift system;
• brig;
• 2,399 restrooms
• 200-seat cinema;
• drive room (aka "the bridge");
• hangar bay (the size of an American Football pitch and housing support craft such as Blue Midgets and Starbug);
• hologram projection suite;
• restaurants, bars, nightclubs and discos;
• Penthouse suite (16-rooms, 9,000 sq ft living quarters with its own maid android);
• officer training and examination facilities;
• photo lab;
• quarantine bay;
• science lab;
• medical bay;
• stasis booth (single);
• observation dome;
• plentiful complement of maintenance skutters.

At the front of The Red Knight is an enormous scoop which sucks hydrogen from space and converts it into fuel.

Captain: Mr D. Lister