((A debate on the Tetragrammaton boards a while ago stemmed in my mind the question of how the HvCft Equinox came into being. I decided to explore its history today. Feel free to add the history of your hovercraft to this thread.))
Although they certainly still hold some disdain towards awakened humans, I would imagine that save for letting us waltz through Zero One, the machines would certainly give us benefits in the real not available to Zion and Exile crews. In another light, I could understand the founding crews [of the Tetragrammaton] using formerly Zion hovercrafts due to the fact that...most of us were awakened by Zionites.
Since the Equinox was commissioned as a reaction to the destruction of the Hovercrafts Repulse, Monitor and Enterprise, I think it's safe to say that we wouldn't make a run into Zion and steal a ship. The Equinox and Axalon were commissioned at nearly the same time, but it would be idiocy to make the same ship twice. As per the current Tetragrammaton hovercraft list, the Axalon is an Archon class (big), while the Equinox is an Alliance class (hopefully was small as the Valdore). I won't speak for the Axalon as I am not its captain, but the Equinox is a clandestine operations ship. "[During the former equinox of the sun], the effects of equinoctial periods was their temporary disruptive effect on communications satellites. For most geostationary satellites, there is almost always a point when the sun is directly behind the satellite relative to Earth. The Sun's immense power and broad radiation spectrum overload the Earth station's reception circuits with noise and, depending on antenna size and other factors, temporarily disrupt or degrade the circuit. The duration of those effects varies but can range from an hour to a few minutes" (Wikipedia : Equinox). The Equinox was built to be primarily self-sufficient vessel, eliminating any risk of outside disruption
This being said, the Equinox is able to broadcast a respectable signal (entering the simulation, gathering data streams, communicating with other ships) without first establishing a connection to one of Zero One's dedicated networks, or attempting to pirate an exile or Zion signal. While in the initial design stages, the ship was designed to utilize a combination of biomass and geothermal energy, it quickly became apparent that neither source was readily available to the extreme necessary. The Equinox was redesigned with a repetitive-energy source built in, the ship's energy was initially stemmed by nuclear reactor, which was promptly disabled, the waste given off being re-used much in the vein of the original biomass plans. The ship runs in a continuous dormant state in order to keep nuclear waste and bagasse (solid sugar-waste) levels nominal. Needless to say, containment is monitored.
Those of you on the ship of course have noticed the single engraved, and two painted (though admittedly haphazardly) Oroborus above the console. The original was marked into the ship by its machine creators, representing the self-sufficiency of the ship. As per Plato:
"The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet."
The other two I painted, conjoining the three as Borromean rings, each representing a plane of reality; the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic. "Real" is represented by the machine snake. If we were to go blind, deaf, and dumb, we would still be able to feel the grooves of its design. The outlined snake illustrates "Imaginary". It exists in every sense except for substantiation. "Symbolic" is exemplified by the looking backwards. This snake is static, and only holds meaning by comparing itself to the past.
((I very well may add onto this a bit later, but I'm far too tired right now.))
