This is a development of an idea I picked up in the "DFGRP in Space" thread. It deals in detail with how a team of specialists at submerged level could build and crew the magical equivalent of a sci-fi spaceship. I say specialists because even with supernatural abilities, a ship is going to need a crew whose skills are highly specialized.
SHIP ARRANGEMENT:
The ship is 5 zones in size, divided into bridge, living quarters, workroom, storage and engineering. Each zone is a 15-yard-cube and contains several systems, with total hull length of 75 yards. It is crewed by 6 submerged people and designed to remain in space for prolonged periods.
Bridge
The bridge is nominally managed by Prophet, the ship's captain and tactical officer. He is an actual prophet, with Cassandra's tears, Guidance (as per guide my hand), ritual divination with 2 refinements and, most important for crew morale, fully upgraded Incite Emotion; Hope. He has high social skills, especially when using his Hope power to boost them, and can manage divinations of up to complexity 10 without additional preparation. He has crafted the ship's sensor spell, a permanent divination providing an alertness 20 effect (33 shifts total) to the captain when sitting in the captain's chair.
The bridge is also where one usually finds Irena, the ship's weapons officer. She is an artificer, having Thaumaturgy, an Item of Power focus of her own design that boosts her crafting abilities and 5 refinements; she has 8 enchanted item slots and 6 potion slots at power 10, frequency 7. 4 of her enchanted items are the ship's weapons she operates herself, 2 are defensive items for her personal use and 2 are "phaser" rods that can be used by others in the group. Her potions are typically boosted by 1 Lore-applied aspect and can be used for various effects, from high-power detonators containing landmines to quick healing spells or even personal shields. One of the potions though is typically boosted with fate points, skill-aspects and help from other people to increase its power - this is used as the ship's shield generator, being able to provide a very high shift Ward up to 7 times.
Living Quarters
The living quarters is where the crew rests and has some recreation, including high-tech gaming devices and laptops. Arya, the ship's medical and maintenance officer, is a summer sidhe changeling with Seelie magic, Supernatural Toughness (cold iron catch) and 4 refinements. In addition to her magic's high suitability to healing and growth, she does not hex technology so she is the one responsible for maintaining the anti-hexing wards on the ship's electrical systems. She is also interested in science.
Workroom
In addition to a minor lab and kitchen, the workroom contains exercise equipment for the crew, all of them tied to electricity generators to not only keep the crew in shape but also provide some electricity. Garth, the ship's security officer, is the scion of a hill giant. Nearly eight feet tall, he has supernatural strength, supernatural toughness, inhuman recovery, a big magic sword and is only weak vs water magic. In addition to being fairly good at security, he is a fitness fanatic and spends 4 hours a day working out. Being about as powerful as a small truck, he incidentally produces 95% of the ship's electricity.
Storage
Andrew Driscoll, the ship's logistics and financial officer as well as a former white court virgin from a white court house that fed on greed, is bankrolling the mission and the only almost-mortal in the group. Having met his wife to be in a University and falling in love at first sight, he was convinced to give a sizable portion of his money to bankroll this space expedition. This burned out the demon in him, leaving him only with an unusually long but ultimately finite lifespan (unnatural constitution). He does not regret this though - apparently, Arya, despite being half-sidhe, is quite a catch. Andrew has loads of resources and contacts oriented stunts and pays for most of the expenses not covered by magic.
Engineering
Fred Van Buren, a decidedly odd century-old wizard, is the mind that designed the ship's "engines". A full wizard with 2 refinements, he's spent most of his life thinking about this idea, and trying different designs, never really living his life. With a focus in transportation and worldwalking, he can cast such spells at up to 11 complexity without additional preparation and, with an average roll, such spells at up to 7 complexity in a single exchange. He cast the spell responsible for the spaceship being able to escape gravity, a 5-zone permanent transportation spell applying the aspect "weightless" on the entire ship. (27 shifts) His design of the ship's propulsion is surprisingly simple, merging knowledge of both magic and physics; two four-ton metal rods are fixed within a reinforced frame and being able to turn from being parallel to crossing to being parallel again via a system of mechanical levers and pulleys. A 17-shift permanent might effect attempting to move them forward in the direction they point has been applied to each of them via a ritual (30 shifts each). When the rods are parallel and pointing towards the bow, the weightless ship is accelerated at a maximum of 2gs. When they are parallel and pointing towards the stern, the ship decellerates at the same - or accelerates backwards. When they are at an angle, the acceleration or decelleration gradually drops as the angle increases because the two forces partially negate eachother. When they point in opposite directions, the ship does not accelerate. With fine control of the two metal rods, the ship can perform various turns.
Old Fred, as his mates call him, can also open gateways big enough to take the entire ship into the Nevernever - as the propulsion system is magical, it has no problem with that as a technological one would - and he is also able to "boost" the engines by layering additional but short-lived rituals in them as well as casting inertia-compensation rituals (applying the aspect "no inertia" on 5 zones with a FP or aspect tag) in case the ship needs to make more than 2 gs.
Notes:1) The ship is weightless so has no problem with takeoff and re-entry, or even going near black holes. Being unaffected by gravity is a major plus for a spaceship - even one that only weighs a few hundred tons.
2) The ship simulates gravity by keeping under constant acceleration in long voyages.
3) The ship contains mundane life support and supplies for 2 years. The medical officer (Arya) can use her magic to vastly accelerate growth of environmental cultures and thus recycle air and water indefinitely.
4) With an acceleration of 2 gs, the ship can reach 80% lightspeed in 6 months. It can reach Alpha Centauri in 6 years but only 1 year 8 months would appear to have passed from the crew's point of view. With inertia compensation and multiple layered propulsion spells that are periodically restored, the ship could do it in 4,5 years minimum - but less than a month will pass from the crew's point of view. Do note that's relativity, not Lawbreaking.
5) In addition to the short-range magical beam weapons and shields that are a dozen or so shifts, the ship bears inertia accumulation warheads; 20 foot-thick tungsten spheres weighing 1 ton each. A divination spell is applied to them that will steer them towards a building or landmark whose photo was taken with a high-quality telescope from space as a sympathetic link. Then, when the ship is a few million miles out, a similar spell to that propelling the ship is cast on the sphere. The sphere accelerates for a day at over 200 gs before it hits the target on the planet at 50% the speed of light, turning its kinetic energy into a blast equivalent of 30 megatons of TNT. If the warheads are not enough and the times are desperate, one could use the ship to ram the planet at 80% lightspeed after 6 months of acceleration, resulting in a 30-gigaton blast.
