Planetoids

Planetoids are a very recent addition to the StarKeith fleet.   Planetoids are typically thousands of kilometers in diameter, and are typically built from large asteroids or small moons.  There are 3 types of planetoid:   Jzell, Shedock, and Argesed.  Jzell class planetoids are the smallest, Shedock the middle, and Argesed the largest.  Argesed class planetoids can mass in the trillions of tons and can be almost 1/2 the size of the planet Keithia itself.

Planetoids carry massive firepower in the form of huge batteries of DEWs and large numbers of missiles and torpedoes.  They also use several hundred kilometers of hull as physical protection from damage.  A planetoid can take several direct hits from some of the most powerful weapons known and keep on going.  All critical systems are quadruple-backup insured, and the living quarters in the center of the hull are heavily protected. 

When the Planetoid class was first created, they used normal "warp" and "hyperspace" engines for their power sources. Typically, dozens of normal-sized power plants were installed in the hull, in order to generate the enormous power required for a ship this size to achieve super-luminal velocities. Impulse speeds were often cost prohibitive at anything beyond 40% of light speed.  Supralight travel of planetoids was not out of the question, however, they didn't go anywhere if there wasn't a very good reason.  However, due to recent advances in power plant design (produced by StarKeith R&D), the newest planetoids are capable of drawing energy from other dimensions (typically, hyperspace itself), which allows them to use fewer engines to achieve supralight speed. These new engines have truly "freed" the Planetoid class, and planetoids are now able to travel freely across Federation space as most other vessels do. All existing planetoids are scheduled to be retrofitted with these new engines within the next few years.

Planetoids use multiple power plants spread throughout the hull (to minimize the possibility of loosing 1 central power core) and have their warp or hyper coils embedded in the hull itself, thus minimizing their probability of being damaged by direct physical attack.

Planetoids often carry small fleets in their hulls, and can comfortably hold several star destroyers and super star destroyers along with hundreds of support ships and the like. 

Seen here is the KSS Zour, AP-5.  The Zour is an Argased Class Planetoid, approximately 3,300 kilometers in diameter, and having a total crew count of 2,000. 

The Argased Class of planetoids are the largest planetoids built by StarKeith today.  As seen here, multiple layers of physical shielding take up a majority of the bulk of the ship's mass.  An explanation of each layer and item that is marked on the diagram follows:

Sub-Space Propulsion Node:  These nodes collectively create the massive sub-space fields around the planetoid that enable supralight travel.   The nodes are located close to the surface, in order to minimize the amount of sub-space strain put on the interior structures of the ship.  The nodes are placed in specific locations throughout the hull to ensure enough coverage to encase the entire ship in the collective sub-space field.  There are also backup nodes, to ensure that the ship can attain supralight speed even with some nodes missing.

Outer Hull:  The outer hull is, quite simply, just the outer surface of the ship.  In the outer hull are the actual hull doors that lead to the tunnels that connect the exterior of the ship with the huge, cavernous fleet bays where many large ships are contained.  Also in the outer hull are the Shield Generators, the DEW emitters, and pockets of fighters in small hangars, for close range defense or planetary bombardment.

Warhead / Fuel Storage:  This layer is where the warheads for the missiles and photon torpedo launchers are stored.  Also, the bulk of the ship's fuel is stored here.  If containment on the anti-matter warheads or fuel cells should rupture, the explosion is far enough from the critical systems of the ship that the ship could safely maintain operational - at least enough to get to a starbase for repairs. In the newer generation planetoids, the dimensional power plants are located in this level, and are heavily shielded to prevent accidental rupture - which could cause a disastrous hyperspace rift to form.

Inner Hull Shielding:  This layer is simply a layer of high-density material made to protect the fleet storage layer from explosions resulting from breaches in the warhead / fuel storage area.

Fleet Storage:  This layer encompasses many large (100km+) fleet bays.  In these bays are stored (depending on the size of the planetoid) 1 or more entire fleets.  The capacity for a planetoid to carry it's own fleet puts it in a league far above most normal starships.

Inner Hull and Computer Systems:  This layer contains more physical and other shielding, and also contains a majority of the ship's computer core.  

Crew Core:  Up until this point, the entirety of the ship has been zero-g (or nearly so; a planetoid does generate a slight gravity field of it's own).  The crew core is the section of the ship that has artificial gravity and contains the crew quarters.  The crew core is typically 250 km across, however, the size may vary depending on total ship size and crew size.  In the crew core are numerous large, open park areas, with holographic skies and full-size lakes, hills, trees, and grass.  These "hydroponics" bays are for crew recreation and also serve to help with oxygen recycling, as well as producing some natural food.  For long deployments, these parks make life aboard a planetoid highly pleasurable, instead of merely tolerable.