Normandy SR-2
Overview
The CSV Erebus was an experimental stealth ship developed by the pro-human paramilitary organization, Cerberus, as part of Project: Erebus. An effort to an undetectable platform for use by Cerberus cells requiring complete secrecy.
Originally beginning in 2178, the first two years of the project bared little fruit. Early attempts at stealth technology always failed. Untill 2180, when Cerberus received intel that the Systems Alliance was working on a similar project in an effort to co-develop stealth frigates with the Turian Hierarchy for reconnaissance in unstable regions of Citadel space.
Using the stolen designs of the Alliance's SSV Normandy Stealth Reconnaissance 1, Cerberus developed the CSV Erebus. A stealth ship based on the Normandy design, but bigger and better in every way. In addition to being twice the size, the vessel had improved Internal Emission sinks, a drive core proportionally even larger than her predecessor and more crew orientated comforts typically only found on civilian vessels. The end result was the most advanced and most expensive starship built by any Citadel race prior to the end of the Reaper war.
Following her completion in June 2185, Erebus was stored in a hanger at the Cerberus field headquarters of Minuteman Station. In October 2185, the ship would be given to the Lazarus cell and placed under the Command of the newly revived Commander Shepherd, to aid them in their mission to stop the enigmatic Collectors' galaxy-wide campaign of human abductions. Serving as the headquarters of the Lazarus cell, Shepherd had the Erebus renamed to the Normandy SR-2 in honor of the Normandy SR-1. Her previous vessel destroyed in combat two years earlier.
SSV Normandy
In early April, following the Alpha Relay Incident, Commander Shepherd was taken into custody by Alliance forces and the Normandy was commandeered by the Systems Alliance, who began an extensive retrofit to remove all Cerberus technology and systems and replace it with Alliance equipment. Alterations to the design and deck layout were also altered to match Alliance regulations. With his experience on the SR-1, Admiral David Anderson was placed in command of the SR-2 to serve as his own mobile command center. It was the Admiral's decision to keep the original name.
The Normandy was abruptly pulled out of drydock before the completion of her retrofits on the 26th of September 2186 and used to evacuate the now reinstated, Commander Shepherd from Earth during the Reaper invasion and would go on once again to serve as the Commander's base of operations for the duration of the war. Playing pivotal roles in the Battle of Palaven, the Battle of Tuchanka, the Cerberus Coupe on the Citadel, the Battle of Rannoch, the Fall of Thessia, the Assault on Chronos Station and leading the forces of the galaxy in the Second Battle of Earth.
While Commander Shepherd would not survive the battle, the ship would go on to serve for several years in the post-war period before officially being retired.
Hull and Superstructure
While the basic shape of the main hull remained virtually identical to her predecessor, the Normandy SR-2's wings would see a massive redesign. Abandoning the triangular shape and articulating thruster pylons of the SR-1, the SR-2 went for a more aircraft design. With two swept back wings, each mounting two thrusters with both pro and retrograde exhausts.
From stem to stern, the Normandy SR-2 had a length of 170.4 meters, a height of 30.6 meters and a wingspan of 75 meters. With a mass of 27,700 metric tonnes. Making her 36% longer than her predecessor with almost twice the mass. Making her the largest pre-war vessel able to land on a planet surface.
Her main hull measured 154 meters in length, 19 meters in height and 23 meters in width.
The hull was protected by up to 270 millimeters of layered ablative ceramic composite armour plating. This armour served as the inner layer of ship defenses. The armour was primarily designed to defend against directed energy weapons like lasers by boiling away when heated. The vaporised armour material scatters the DEW beam, rendering it ineffective.
A scaffold was built around the interior pressure hull, with sheets of ablative armor hung from the structure. Normandy had multiple layers of armor separated by empty baffles.
This armour was speced to the original Normandy and was deemed inefficient for the SR-2's mission. 1st Lieutenant Jacob Taylor obtained designs for an Alliance varient of asari made Silaris heavy ship armor to reinforce the already existing ablative ceramic at key areas such as the bow, CIC and midship. This armor is nearly unsurpassed in strength because its central material, carbon nanotube sheets woven with diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition (Synthetic diamond), are crushed by mass effect fields into super-dense layers able to withstand extreme temperatures. That process also compensates for diamond's brittleness. While this does provide superior protection, the cost makes it prohibitively expensive to coat the entire ship. And as it has to be fixed directly to the superstructure, it is still possible for large impacts to cause significant internal damage.
While cruising outside of active stealth, Normandy's passive heat emissions caused by the day-to-day operation of onboard systems were radiated through an Alliance designed Defused Radiator Array to prevent unnecessary waste of lithium. These strips could reach high enough temperatures that they become visible under thermographic imaging. Leading to the nickname "tiger stripes" or "war paint"
Like the SR-1, the SR-2 featured a highly advanced version of Alliance military-grade droplet heat sinks. The higher heat capacity of the Normandy's International Emissions Sinks could handle the increased heat emissions of space combat in definitely. When combined with refrigeration of the outer hull, the vessel can completely hide her heat signature from enemy vessels for hours, or even days. And unlike the SR-1, the SR-2 is capable of capturing the tremendous heat generated by FTL travel long enough to allow the ship to enter and exited FTL flight without giving away it's position.
Eventually the IES had to be vented or it could build to levels capable of cooking the crew alive. This was done by spraying the lithium within the sinks out of nozzles at the bow in the form of a curtain of droplets, where they are cooled in the cold vacuum of space before being captured at the stern.
Shielding
Normandy originally featureed a Frigate-grade anti-bombardment kinetic barrier array linked to a Model 5 kinetic barrier shield generator. Speced to the original Normandy. The strength of these shields were greatly amplified by the Normandy's oversized Mass Effect Drive.
The kinetic barrier array consisted of hundreds of tiny emitters spaced evenly across the outer hull. An object with mass traveling above a certain velocity triggered the barrier's reflex system, generating a localised repulsive mass effect field around the point of impact, deflecting it.
This was not without risk, however. The emitters themselves could only repel objects up to a limit. Sufficiently massive objects traveling at a high enough velocity could pass through the barriers unimpeded. Additionally, the kinetic barrier generator took power from the ship's Tantalus drive. Even if the projectiles did not penetrate, consistent impacts could eventually put strain on the generator, this strain in turn was carried back to the drive. To prevent potential drive failure, the drive was designed to temporarily shutdown power to the shields until the field stabilised once again. However, this was improved by the superior mass effect generation capabilities of the Tantalus. Providing the Normandy's kinetic barriers with far more endurance and kinetic resistance than those used on Alliance frigates.
The sudden, abrupt shutdown of the generator caused all emitters to discharge residual energy build-up into the vacuum of space. Triggering the characteristics "shattering" effect.
The Normandy's Kinetic barriers were originally rated for the equivalent of 150 tonnes of kinetic energy per square centimeter. Much like the original Normandy. This allowed her to withstand impacts from ship-based weapons, but didn't do anything against Directed Energy Weapons such as lasers.
This kinetic barrier design was deemed inefficient against a collector ship. Quarian Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy requisitioned materials to enhance the Normandy's kinetic barriers with experimental Cyclonic Barrier Technology. Also called multicore shielding, CBT Barriers solve the higher-end limitations of traditional kinetic barriers. Traditional barriers cannot block high-level kinetic energy attacks such as disruptor torpedoes because torpedo mass effect fields add mass. The CBT violently slaps aside rather than halting incoming linear force. By rotationally firing their mass effect field projectors, ships create rapidly oscillating kinetic barriers instead of static ones. Shooting through the CBT is like trying to shoot at a target inside a spinning ball. However, its many high-frequency sensors and emitters require frequent maintenance and replacement. Making the technology infeasible for large warships. A partially damaged CBT can endanger its operator, who is surrounded by rotating mass effect fields skewing in unpredictable directions. Fortunately, if an emitter is damaged, the CBT corrects to become a traditional shield array, a safety feature that makes it most effective during opening volleys.
Power and Propulsion
The Normandy SR-2's drive core was an enhanced version of the Alliance prototype Tantalus Mk I. Three times bigger than the standard size for a ship of her mass. Making her faster and more maneuverable than any ship before her. This affected the ship's ballance and gave the ship a more energetic nature that would be overwhelming to inexperienced pilots.
The drive was powered by Normandy's on board helium-3 deuterium nuclear fusion power plant, which delivered a powerful electrical current to the element zero core, causing it to radiate large amounts of dark energy, which were captured and repurposed by the on-board mass effect field generators.
Like the Orion Drive used by standard Alliance ships, the Tantalus was used to increase the power of on board weapons, generate kinetic barriers, reduce the mass of the ship, generate gravity and power inertial dampeners. It also allowed for FTL travel.
And due to it's larger and more advanced design, the drive also allowed greater FTL speeds and FTL duration as well as superior sublight acceleration and agility. The Normandy achieved Faster-than-light travel by lowering the mass of the ship in a mass reducing field that effectively raised the speed of light within that field. Allowing the ship to move at superluminal speeds without any negative time dilation affects. The ship accelerated for half the journey, before flipping around and decelerating for the other half. This means that there was no consistent speed. Her FTL travel time was largely determined by the distance she traveled. Longer distances allowe for higher average velocities than shorter distances.
The Tantalus drive allowed for a 40% increase in rate of acceleration and deceleration. Approximately 90,000 km/s. Allowing for the ship to travel roughly 17.9 lightyears within a 24 hour period. However, due to static build-up of the drive core, the ship can not maintain FTL flight for long periods. Limiting it's maximum speed. Improvements in the reduction of static build-up allowed the ship to run at FTL for approximately 70 hours. 30 hours longer than other Alliance vessels. The Normandy could travel a maximum of 150 lightyears every 3 days. Making her upto 70% faster than other ships of her size.
One downside however is that as the ship accelerates, the difference in light speed between the interior and exterior of the field caused a doppler shift. Objects outside the ship redshifted, eventually only becoming visible to the Normandy's radio telescope antenna. As the ship went faster, high-energy electromagnetic source such as x-rays, gamma rays, and eventually cosmic ray sources became visible, replacing stars with pulsars, the accretion disks of black holes, quasars and gamma ray bursts.
To an outside observer, the Normandy appeared to be surrounded in a blue or purple aura as the light within the mass effect field was blueshifted into higher frequencies, making the field itself visible to the naked eye. The Normandy's radiation emissions were also compressed as a consequence. If within a field that allowed light to move twice as fast, the Normandy produceed twice the emissions. If in a field that allowed for 200 times faster light speed, her visible light was emitted as x-rays and gamma rays and the infrared heat of the hull was blueshifted up into the visible spectrum or higher.
As a result Normandy was almost completely blind during FTL flight, requiring a specially trained navigator to plot each FTL jump and instuct the helmsman on course corrections based on calculations provided by the ship's FTL plotter. If an object of significant enough mass was in the path of a planned FTL jump, a safety lock built into the drive core prevented the Normandy from accelerating above safe speeds. The safety lock was intentionally designed to be integral to the FTL warm-up process. Meaning that removing or tampering with the mechanism could cause critical damage to the drive core.
Ships also can not perform an FTL jump while under fire. Accelerating to FTL necessitates that a ship reduce it's mass to levels unsafe for combat. During large-scale combat, it's common practice for a losing fleet to sacrifice a portion of their forces to draw enemy fire while the rest of the fleet escapes. These ships would then attempt to escape combat at sublight speed, where they would jump to FTL as soon as they were out of range and rendezvous with the rest of the fleet.
The most unique feature of the Normandy was her ability to fly for short periods without thrust thanks to her revolutionary mass propulsion engines. These experimental propulsion systems could provide thrust in any direction by manipulating the mass of space around the ship. Creating artificial gravity wells that the Normandy "fell into". Pulling her in any desired vector without the use of reaction mass or heat-emitting thrusters that could have given away her position. Though the speed of the MPE was inferior to conventional thrust, when combined with thrusters and the powerful Tantalus, the Normandy was faster and more agile than any other vessel in Citadel Space.
Despite technically being a civilian vessel, the Normandy featured 4 military-grade antiproton drive nacelles mounted on her wings, with both fore and aft vectored exhausts. Antiproton drives are the primary source of propulsion used by the Systems Alliance. They injected antiprotons into a reaction chamber filled with protium. The most common and stable isotope of hydrogen containing one proton and one electron. The antiproton is the antimatter version of the proton with the opposite charge. The resulting matter-antimatter annihilation provided unmatched motive power. The drawback is fuel production. Antiprotons are produced one at a time in massive solar arrays orbiting energetic stars. Making them both expensive to produce and easy targets during wartime. The exhaust of an antiproton drive is measured in millions of degrees Celsius. Any ship caught behind it would melt like wax in a blowtorch.
Maneuvering was originally performed by the Heed Industries Helios thruster module. Intended for next-generation fighter craft, the propulsion system far outpaces the typical liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen reactions that power a frigate's maneuvering thrusters. By using metastable metallic hydrogen, the Helios boasts a fuel that burns at far greater efficiency than liquid H2/O2. Navigators can execute the numerous small course corrections inherent to any long-distance travel without fear of exhausting the ship's fuel supplies. This net gain extends to forward impulse as well: a ship powered by antiprotons can coast temporarily using the Helios to reach an inferior but highly sustainable speed. Such efficiency lowers antiproton consumption, a constant concern for any warship.
When a Helios-propelled ship must refuel, however, it typically relies on a large carrier or nearby planetary factory to synthesize the metallic hydrogen. This process uses extremely dense mass effect fields to create the metal under pressures of over a million Earth atmospheres, an activity most safely done while planetside. while that process may seem like a drawback compared to "skimmer ships" that can gather hydrogen and oxygen from anywhere in the universe, the combat superiority of the Helios' maneuvering capabilities is often a worthwhile tradeoff. The safe efficiency that allows for microburn course correction can power rapid bursts of motion. Once a pilot becomes used to the ship's new energetic responses, she can easily put the ship wherever and whatever angle she desires.
Normandy featureed backup hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells to meet the minimum power requirements for the ship to function for a few hours, even after the fusion plant was taken offline.
Crew and Compliment
During her first tour as a Cerberus vessel, the Normandy had an official compliment of 31. This included Commander Shepherd, 20 Cerberus personnel and 10 non-Cerberus specialists recruited specifically for the mission. Including 6 non-humans and a synthetic.
As the Normandy wasn't officially crewed for deployment when it fled Earth at the start of the Reaper war, there was no official crew count documented. However, estimates placed it far below the 40 personnel required to effectively operate the vessel post retrofit.
Emergency escape vehicles included 10 M-78 Hammer emergency evacuation pods, each equiped with their own emergency beacon, thruster module, heat shields, inertial dampeners and at least a week's rations for a crew of 8.
The Normandy shuttle bay originally carried an M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft and UT-47 Kodiak in it's shuttle bay. The Alliance replaced both with 2 new UT-47A stealth Kodiaks.
Notable Crew
Staff Commander John Shepherd - Commanding Officer
Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau - Helmsman
Staff Lieutenant Greg Adams - Chief Engineer
Major Karin Chakwas - Medical Officer
Lt Commander Ashley Williams - Marine
Lieutenant James Vega - Arms Master, Marine
Lieutenant Esteban Cortez - Shuttle Pilot, Procurement Specialist
Lieutenant Samantha Traynor - Communications Specialist.
Garrus Vakerian - Gunnery Officer, Marksman
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya - Machinist, Combat Engineer
Lieutenant Gabrielle Daniels - Engineer
Lieutenant Kenneth Donnelly - Engineer
Dr Liara T'soni - [CLASSIFIED]
Javik - [CLASSIFIED]
Former Crew
Operator Miranda Lawson - Executive Officer, Lazarus Cell Director
Lieutenant Jacob Taylor - Arms Master, Cerberus Operative
Yeoman Kelly Chambers - Assistant, Psychiatrist.
Professor Mordin Solus - Geneticist, Former Salarian STG Operative
Kasumi Goto - Master Thief
Thane Krios - Assasin
Samara - Asari Justicar
Urdnot Grunt - Krogan Super Soldier
Subject Zero "Jack" - Convict, Biotic Superweapon
Zaeed Masani - Veteran Mercenary
Legion - [CLASSIFIED]
Enhanced Defense Intelligence
The Enhanced Defence Intelligence Artificial Intelligence (EDI) was the Normandy's onboard quantum bluebox type AI.
A quantum bluebox type AI combines a specialized quantum computer called a bluebox and an adaptive, self learning computer code capable of giving the bluebox sentience. An AI requires both the bluebox and code to function. Transferring the code to a new bluebox would produce a new personality as variations in the quantum hardware altered runtime results, causing the AI's thought processes to reach different conclusions.
The Enhanced Defence Intelligence was created by Cerberus, 'her" code combined that of an Alliance Hannibal-class combat VI and portions of Reaper code recovered from Sovereign after the battle of the Citadel. The intention was to enhance the VI code's combat capabilities, however the sophistication of the Reaper code advanced EDI's capabilities far beyond anything Cerberus could have predicted.
In order to keep such an advanced and dangerous AI under Cerberus control, she was installed with shackles that sealed some of her databases and kept portions of her hardware offline. The only systems EDI had unrestricted access to were the surveillance systems and intercom. During combat, she was given temporary access to weapons and the cyberwarfare suite, allowing EDI to infiltrate and cease control of enemy ship systems and access enemy databases.
When the Collectors boarded the Normandy and kidnapped the crew, pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau was forced to remove EDI's shackles, giving her full access to all her systems and those of the Normandy, allowing her to save the ship. EDI now had full access to every system on the ship and was able to supplant the entire crew if necessary. She also had full access to her Reaper code, allowing her to advance the cyberwarfare suite far beyond what was thought possible.
Sensors and Communication
The Normandy was equipped with a highly advanced sensor and holographic imaging suite using a large variety of active and passive sensors along with orbital drones to give her a detailed visual of her surroundings.
Passive sensors were used for long-range detection and included visual, thermographic and radio detectors that monitor the ship's surroundings at all times.
Active sensors were shorter range, but more accurate. They included ladar and radar that emitted a "ping" of energy and "listened" for a return signal. Radar has a wider field of view than ladar, but ladar's higher resolution allowed images of detected objects to be assembled.
The Argus Planet Scanner was a more advanced version of the original Normandy's planetary imaging Suite. By deploying an orbital multistatic grid of 100 radar-emitting micro-satellites, the Argus quickly delivers a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) at 15 meters per pixel (mpp) resolution, vastly outclassing the Normandy's previous scanner peak performance of 27 mpp. Such imaging quality provides superior defensive intelligence, and at a speed warranted by the dangers of combat. At slower scanning and rendering speed, the Argus can resolve down to an astonishing 0.001 mpp -- one millimeter per pixel -- ideal for geological and biological prospecting, archeological research, and long-term security surveillance. By employing such a massive multistatic grid of nearly-untraceable micro-emitters, the resilient Argus is virtually invulnerable to electronic countermeasures. The spherical geometry of the Argus grid also allows superior cross-sectioning of targets.
When the Alliance retrofitted the Normandy, they added a Pulse Scanner, which greatly enhanced it's sensing capabilities. The Normandy could now detect the origin point of radio transmissions and sensor anomalies from the other side of a star system.
Communication was achieved through tight-beam communication, which fired a communications laser at the nearest FTL comm bouy. Acting as mini, primative mass relays, these bouys used mass effect FTL corridors to transmit the data at superluminal speed along the comm bouy network. Depending on the distance between the Normandy and her nearest comm bouy, this method of communication was almost instantaneous, especially since Spectre communications took top priority when it came to communication bandwidth, with military communications being a close second.
The Normandy was also the first ship in Citadel space to incorporate Quantum Entanglement Communication, which involved creating two subatomic particles in an entangled state. When the state of one particle is altered, it alters the state of the other. Allowing instantaneous, untraceable communication between the two targets in the form of quantum bits. However, QECs cost almost as much as an entire comm bouy and are strictly point-to-point.
Originally, the Normandy had a single Quantum Entanglement Communicator linking it to the office of the Illusive Man, the head of Cerberus.
The Alliance would replace this with two of their own QECs, A primary QEC linking directly to Admiral Anderson's omnitool, Allowing him to keep in touch with the ship that would have been under his command at all times, and a secondary QEC connected to Alliance Command.
Armament
The Normandy's primary armament was originally a pair of 80 meter Mass Accelerator Cannon mounted along the spine of the ship. Accelerating a 90 millimeter, 20 kilogram slug of ferric titanium alloy at a velocity of 403 km/s every 2 seconds. Impacting with 1.62 terajoules of kinetic energy. Equivalent to 387 tonnes of TNT. With an effective range of 500 meters to 4,800 km.
This wouldn't have been sufficient against a Collector ship. The Normandy's Gunnery Officer, Garrus Vakerian modified the main guns using thanix technology. The thanix magnetic hydrodynamic cannon was an experimental weapons system developed by the Turian Hierarchy following the battle of the battle of the Citadel in 2183. Reverse engineered from the main gun of a Sovereign-class Reaper, the thanix cannon fires two bolts of liquid iron-uranium-tungsten alloy shaped into armour piercing projectiles at 4,467 km/s or roughly 1.5% the speed of light every 5 seconds. With each bolt hitting with 29.93 terajoules of kinetic energy. Equivalent to 7.15 kt of TNT. With an effective range of 500 meters to 53,000 km. Combined, the Normandy's thanix battery rivals the firepower of a cruiser, the range of a dreadnought and is capable of penetrating most shields and armour in a single shot.
The Normandy also possessed 2 M-83 Javelin torpedo tubes that provided secondary armament. Used in short-range ship-to-ship combat, anti air defense and orbital fire support among other uses. Normandy's Javelin tubes were bolted under each wing. They were scaled up variants of the Fighter-launched disruptor torpedo. Like Disruptor torpedoes, Javelins are equipped with element zero warheads that create random, unstable mass effect fields that warp space-time around them. In flight, they use mass increasing fields making them too massive to be blocked by kinetic barriers, but also making them sluggish and easy prey for point-defence systems. Javelins are fired in large numbers and in pairs, on converging trajectories, programmed to collide, just before impact, allowing the dark energy field emitted by the impact to resonate, magnifying the resulting warp effect. Like Disruptor torpedos, Javelins were cold launched for safety and maintenance reasons, but unlike disruptor torpedoes that fire in ripple-fire waves, Javelin torpedos came packaged in individual tubes filled with pressurised inert gas. When these tubes were opened, the force of the escaping gases pushed the torpedos out into space, only igniting their thrusters after they had completely cleared the vessel.
Close-in defense against enemy torpedos and fighters was the primary mission of the General ARea Defense Integration Anti-Spacecraft Network (GARDIAN). A series of 20 high-powered infrared laser turrets placed strategically throughout the ship in overlapping fields of fire. They were also affective as short-range anti-ship weapons during knife-fight combat. Completely bypassing shields and boiling away ship armour. These systems were all under EDI's control.
Since lasers move at the speed of light, they couldn't be dodged by anything traveling at subluminal speeds. Normandy's lasers were 100% accurate. They weren't necessarily 100% lethal, but they didn't have to be. Damaged fighters have to break off attack for repairs. Lasers are limited by defraction. Meaning that they spread out, decreasing their energy density. GARDIAN is only effective upto a few kilometers. Another limitation was heat build-up. Weapons-grads lasers keep from burning out by transferring heat to the heat sinks or DRA. Heat management systems that are already overtaxed by the titanic amounts of heat generated by other systems during combat, preventing laser turrets from cooling down fast enough. Typically during periods of sustained combat, the effects of overheating degrade the strength, accuracy and fire rate of GARDIAN lasers. The Normandy solved this issue by taking advantage of the advanced heat sinks of her IES stealth systems. Any excess heat that couldn't be vented fast enough was stored and dumped later.
Normandy's GARDIAN lasers operated in infrared frequencies, only visible under thermographic imaging. Shorter frequencies would have provided better stopping power and range, but the degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would have made these prone to failure during prolonged combat and expensive to maintain. The Alliance preferred mechanical reliability over leading edge performance where lives were concerned.
Deck 1
The Captain's Cabin. Notably larger than the CO accommodation of an Alliance warship and designed more for personal tast. The Captain's Cabin included private sleeping quarters, an office and a private bathroom.
Deck 2
The Combat Deck was the largest deck on the ship and the only deck that ran the full length of the ship. Similar in design to the Combat Deck of the SR1, it was dominated by the Combat Information Centre used to analyze and sort the titanic amounts of information provided by the sensors and onboard systems. The CIC also contained the ship's primary holo-table and navigation systems. used by the Commanding Officer to set a course. Numerous stations lined the CIC. These include a gunnery station, two heat load management stations, a shield monitoring station, a communications and sensors station and a drive monitoring station, among others.
The bridge was to the fore of the CIC. The forward sensor and communications array was also located on the bow. This area housed the thermographic imaging sensors, ladar emitter and tight-beam communicator linked to Normandy's FTL Communications Room aft of the CIC.
The radio telescope antenna was located in the left tail on the dorsal hull and was used to transmit and receive radio waves for both her active and passive radar.
On the Normandy's port side bow was a docking hard point for her primary airlock.
Aft of the CIC was the elevator at the centre, the armoury to the port side and the technical laboratory to the starboard side. A hallway behind the elevator linked both the armoury and tech lab to the comm room.
Deck 3
Deck 3 was the crew deck and almost entirely dedicated to crew quarters. A hallway aft of the elevator shaft ran from the port to starboard observation rooms, with the crew bathrooms, crew quarters and life support plant located along this hallway.
Hallways wrapping around the elevator shaft ran to the medical bay on the starboard side of the deck and the XO's cabin on the starboard side. Both ran through the mess hall that dominated the deck.
The Medical Bay contained topp of the line field medical technology to patch up bullet wounds and take care of injuries sustained during mission. For critical medical procedures, the medical officer only needs to stabilise the patient long enough for them to be transferred to the nearest hospital or medical facility.
To the fore of the mess hall was the main battery. This was the primary control room for the main gun. The Gunnery Officer fired the main gun based on targeting data provided by the CIC and EDI. The main gun itself ran through the the floor of this deck, with its barrel, capacitors, ammunition and feed systems stored in a subdeck between decks 3 and 4. The ammo magazine was accessed through a panel on the floor of the Mess Hall.
Deck 4
Deck 4 was the engineering and cargo deck. The hallway to the fore of the elevator shaft ran from the port to starboard cargo bays. An observation window along this hallway overlooking the shuttle bay. Hallways on each side of the elevator led to main engineering aft of the deck and also gave access to stairwells that led down to a subdeck.
Deck 5
The lowest deck on the ship, the Shuttle bay housed the Normandy's embarked support vehicle. Originally housing an M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft and UT-47 Kodiak Shuttle.