"The only thing stopping this from going anywhere is the one piloting it."

*This is from several document excerpts in Shire Industries R&D wing 4b.

Concept Origins

The Incent was originally meant to look a lot different than it does now, being named "Project Spade", and was under the stead of internal division Shire Motorworks rather than the current drive manufacturer Garrison. Although Motorworks was responsible for all early-model racers and spacecraft before the Shire Industries era, it did not last long once Shire Industries needed better technology integrations to try and keep up with the other corporations. Motorworks was disbanded as an internal division and Burns instead opted for hitting up Garrison Driveworks with a deal. Burns declared that if Garrison provide them with efficient and reliable engines, Shire would only source engines from their company, ensuring Garrison remains fundable. The deal was secured, allowing for Garrison to start developing better engines and Shire getting to completely remodel the Incent from the ground up.

Functionality and Purpose

The craft was designed to show Shire's capability in the growing continuum of corporations, and as a way to offer a comfortable living space that adds together as a craft almost no ship can detect. With the design looking akin to an atmosphere-only fighter jet, it proves most capable when actually in the atmosphere of a planet, able to fully utilize its cloak surface and engine plume hiders and silencers. While the craft has these features, most of the time they aren't even used because of the Incent's most notable advantage over any other ship out there: Its speed. It drew inspiration from pre-galactic aircraft from about 700 years ago, taking its defensive method from the ancient SR-71 "Blackbird", which means that if detected and fired upon, it can simply outrun missiles or even anti aircraft guns. Lasers are the only thing that pose a threat to the Incent, but most of the time it remains undetected anyways, or laser lock-on systems will struggle trying to get a bead on it. In the event an Incent is struck, thermal diffusion layers and damage mitigation systems try to save the craft's functionality, sacrificing some of the outer paneling. If it cannot recover functionally from damage, it instructs the pilot to eject on the spot, and once the pilot has ejected, the ship's AI takes over and tries to land the ship in the least damaging way possible.

Propulsion Systems

The Incent is equipped with a Garrison Twin 2.35 stud cylinder Mutiny engine, one of Garrison's fastest engine platforms out there, breaking top speeds of even HSRL racers in the atmosphere. It has also said to have reached hypersonic speeds on its own in just 25.7 seconds, which was the furthest the Incent has ever been pushed. Due to how much strain this puts on the engines, the Stratega AI incorporated into the craft has been coded to limit acceleration to only 275.75 st/s. Top speed is also limited to only mach 2.5 in certain environments, while mach 5 is permitted in space environments, with minimal obstacles. The Incent has a theoretical top speed of Mach 15.5, but it is unadvised to even approach or exceed this speed, as the pilot could suffer from severe and excessive G-forces, and the acceleration required to reach Mach 15.5 is absurd for a human. There has been a proposed experiment where they place the Stratega AI in a craft without a pilot, however this never made it through because of budget cuts and risk of expensive damage.

Stratega AI

The Stratega AI has been around since before the Incent, but has mostly only been incorporated within Shire institute buildings and running equipment. With the dawn of the Incent, the early development team decided to have the Stratega AI be incorporated into the Incent's digital mainframe. Development of detachable AI modules were started and a slot to put these modules into the Incent was incorporated for ease of switching AI models in an emergency. With how expensive of a feature this was, they had to make sure there was zero discrepancies with how the AI and the ship's mainframe operates before sourcing out an Incent model. However, with the incorporation of an AI, it is much easier and safer to have an Autopilot system while the ship owner could be sleeping in the bed behind the cockpit, with an accessable interface being placed in the living quarters of the area incase of emergency. There is also an escape hatch inside the living quarters incase the pilot is not at the seat, and there is a quick to pick up emergency parachute bag right underneath the owner's bed, in which they can simply put on and clip on their back. If in the event the Stratega AI does fail to operate, Operatives are to turn on manual mode, which completely shuts off all AI connection to the mainframe and allows the pilot to utilize nearby satellites as navigation, at which they must return to a city with Shire mechanics nearby, and have their Stratega AI repaired or replaced.

The Maiden Voyage

The Incent was given a final test to see if it really did perform what it promised. Irel Solas, one of the former test pilots for the Incent in its early days, suggested a 4-month expedition to explore deep space with the Stratega AI, and survive in the craft for four months. Stratega marked the institute building as "Home", the Incent was filled with food and water, and with the Stratega AI there, Irel wouldn't lose his sanity from being alone. Occasionally, operatives from the institute would call him to check up on his mission, to further reduce isolation stress. When Irel returned from his 4-month mission, it was officially declared that the Incent be put up for mass production and sell out to customers seeking a personal limousine.

SHIRE INTERNAL R&D ARCHIVE

PROJECT CODE: INC-7R4.4745.017-A

ASSET: INCENT

STATUS: ACTIVE PRODUCTION