by Kevin Walsh
Class Name: Bowie
Type: Fleet Combat Scout
TL: 12
Tonnage: 600
Cost: 215.963 MCR
Mass: 1746.85 tons
DR: 862
Hit Points: 52,200
Crew: 8 crew, 10 troops
Engineering
Jump: 3
Maneuver: 2.5
Offensive Systems
2 Fusion Guns in popup dual turret
2 Triple Missile Turrets, 1 is a popup
2 Triple Laser Turrets, 1 is a popup
Defensive Systems
Triple Sandcaster Turret
Nuclear Damper [20 Mile Radius]
Area sensor Jammer [rating 16]
Blip Enhancer
Basic Stealth
Radical EM Masking
Small Craft
G Carrier
4 Grav Bikes
50 space space dock
Other Features
Hardened Command Bridge
Survey Bridge with Extensive Survey Array
Machine Shop
Electronics Shop
Sick Bay
18 Staterooms
20 Low Berths
2 5-Space Missile Magazines
Notes
Covert Operations Scout, built on a liner hull. Primarily used for data collection and monitoring in possibly hostile areas. Discreetly armed with a basic collection of weapons in standard turrets, and 3 popup turrets for combat use including a dual fusion gun turret for point defense. These ships have also been used for anti-piracy sweeps and as q-ships in the Trimaris rift.Two ships of this class were used as part of Operation "Rowan Shield" which sent the ships along with elements of the 39th Spaceborne regiment, and the 4566th Fighter Wing into the Trimaris Rift, in the Hawkwind subsector. There they scouted several independent planets and a couple of gas giants for signs of piracy activity.
After the Grey Ghost was attacked by corsairs in the DVX-151 system, she jumped outsystem and headed back for Confederation territory, Whereupon Strikeron 11 and AssaultRon 51 were sent to put an end to the menace once and for all. Later the Grey Ghost had a run-in with a Vargr raider while prowling the border region, and was able to take the raider as a war prize.
Design Notes
If running on EMCON, and with the extra turrets retracted, these ships can pass for a standard liner to casual scans. They're not well-armored for a stand-up fight, but have enough agility to run like hell, and they can take care of themselves fairly well in a fight with smaller ships. These ships are often used for planetary surveying in outlying regions or for crew training.Missile Turrets: Two Triple Missile Turrets, also capable of launching sensor drones. Drone control is handled from the bridge or the survey lab. One of the turrets is a popup mount. The Turrets are mounted fore and aft, Below the bridge and drive deck. Each turret is fed by a five-space magazine, and 12 drones are carried in each magazine.
Fusion Gun Turret: One dual FG turret in a popup mount, mounted roughly center of the ship, giving it an exceptional field of fire. It is primarily used for point defense purposes.
Laser Turrets: Two Triple Laser Turrets, mounted aft on the stub wings, one is a popup. Two false laser turrets are situated forward above and below the bridge.
Command Bridge: Located in the dish shaped bow of the ship, contains two extra workstations, one is for the extra sensor array. The other is for scientific operations and control of the drones. There are a total of six workstations in a horseshoe arrangement around the edge of the bridge, with a large holo chart table in the center pit.
Survey Bridge: Located in the lower aft hull, two standard workstations and another, albeit smaller, holotable. It is connected directly to the Survey Lab, which contains a separate sensor workstation and a commo station for communicating with landing parties and the drones.
Spacedock: Split into two separate sections, one normally contains a G Carrier and four Grav Bikes. The other has fittings for two 10-ton fighters, or can be used for assorted cargo. The spacedocks are located in the aft section of the hull between the maneuver drives.
Electronics Suite: Aside from the standard sensor array, the ships in this class are fitted with an extensive electronic warfare package, including a powerful Area Jammer, a Blip Enhancer, and decoy dispensers. They are also fitted for RPV control, and for planetary surveying.
Crew Quarters: Eight single staterooms for the crew. Ten double staterooms will hold two squads of Marines, although only one is usually carried.
Conference Room: Located adjacent to the survey bridge and used as an office by the ship's marine officer, it's also used for mission briefings and for recreational activities as time allows.
Machine and Electronics Shops: Located in the center of the hull, just forward of the docking bays. These are equipped with standard tools for working on the ship and small craft. There's also a set of armory tools for working on the marines' equipment.
Missile Magazines: Heavily armored and located below the launchers, each magazine contains 390 misses, and 10 sensor drones. The magazines are designed to blow out and vent explosions away from the ship to minimize explosion damage.
Class Name: Centurion
Type: Fleet Battle Rider
TL: 12
Tonnage: 3,000 streamlined
Cost: 754.108 MCR
Mass: 21,802 tons
DR: 6,349
Hit Points: 141,750
Crew: 125 crew and 500 troops
Engineering
Jump: 0
Maneuver: 4.6
Offensive Systems
Missile Bay
7 Triple Laser Turrets
2 Dual Fusion Guns
Defensive Systems
Meson Screen [DR 5053]
Nuclear Damper [20 mile Radius]
Triple Sandcaster
Rating 16 EMS Jammer
Blip Enhancer
100 decoys
Radical Stealth
Radical EM Cloaking
Small Craft
300-Space Spacedock for vehicles
Other Features
Hardened Command Bridge
Basic Emergency Bridge
4 Sick Bays
65 Staterooms
31 Bunkrooms for Troops
100 Low Berths
5 Drop Capsule Launchers
Machine Shop
Electronics Shop
257 Spaces CargoThese ships are capable of delivering an entire battalion of troops to a planetary surface, and provide fire support for them if needed. These ships are often carried aboard larger assault transports, or on Assault Tenders, and usually operate in squadrons of 3-6 ships.
Design Notes
The design is based on a cylinder hull with disc-shaped wings and a maneuvering foil aft, and smaller maneuvering fins at the centerline.Missile Bay: Located in a setback position in the belly of the ship, roughly centered. The magazine is fitted with blowout panels to vent an explosion below the ship in case of a catastrophic hit.
Laser Turrets: Two of the triple laser mounts are fixed in the outer leading edges of the stub wings. Two more turrets are mounted dorsally and ventrally amidships, although the ventral turret is mounted behind and below the missile bay. The other three are mounted port and starboard aft, and above the drive module.
Fusion Gun Turrets: Mounted aft on the center of the airfoil, this turret is remotely-controlled from the bridge.
Command Bridge: Situated in the heavily-armed nose, stations are arranged in an I formation, with the captain's chair above and centered.
Vehicle Bay: The cavernous Vehicle Bay has large doors opening to port and starboard, and stretches the entire width of the ship. Two large cargo lifts are also available for loading and unloading. These ships are equipped with full machine and electronics shops, allowing major maintenance and repairs to be conducted on any carried vehicles. The ship's cargo bay is also attached to the Vehicle Bay, although heavily compartmentalized for safety.
Troops' Quarters: The ship's 500 troops are separated into 31 bunkrooms, which helps keep order, and prevents catastrophic hits from taking out all the troops at once. Each bunkroom has separate fresher facilities and a small galley.
Maneuver Drive: Two 50,000-ton Thrust Heplar drives power these ships to a hefty 4.6 G's of maneuvering power. These drives are license-built locally, from a design by Carpenter Engineering. The bays are very roomy, for easy maintenance.
Drop Capsule Launchers: Five Drop Capsule Launchers are contained in a room just off the vehicle bay, along with storage for 150 capsules. This is enough to hot-drop an entire reinforced Jump Infantry Company.
Sensor Array: These ships are equipped with an enhanced sensor array, which includes provisions for RPV Control. These are used mostly for forward observer roles, and for tactical support. Twelve sensor drones are usually carried.
Emergency Bridge: Located aft below the drive bays, this serves a secondary purpose of handling communications with troops and vehicles on the ground, and handling fire control data from drones or forward observers.
Special Notes
Here are the stats for the Carpenter Arms CPX-351 "Brown Bess" Railgun:Heavy Autoloading Very Long Barreled Gauss Gun [TL-12]
ROF: 25
Damage: 6D*343 [Solid Shot]
1/2D Range: 4,725 yards
Maximum Range: 12,830 yards
Power Required: 187,500 kw per turn
Weight: 48 tons
Volume: .30 tons
Cost Per Shot: 10
Weight Per Shot: 1.5
Acc: 19
SS: 30
Class Name: Titan
Type: Fleet Bulk Cargo Carrier
TL: 12
Tonnage: 30,000 tons unstreamlined
Cost: 4,266.092 MCR
Mass: 111,319.7 tons
DR: 102
Hit Points: 552,000
Crew: 37 and up to 40 passengers
Engineering
Jump: 3
Maneuver: 1
Offensive Systems
Nine turrets are fitted but no weapons
Defensive Systems
One Triple Sandcaster
Small Craft
Four Shuttles in Space Dock
Other Features
Basic Bridge
Cargo Office [Basic Bridge without Sensors]
Sick Bay
20 Low Berths
21 Crew Staterooms
20 Passenger Staterooms
17,420.5 spaces of cargoThis is a massive bulk carrier, built for and used by large megacorps for various tasks. Terran Fleet Command leases eight of these ships for tanker/supply duties in times of need. While poorly armed and armored, it was never designed for operation in combat zones; any used for tanker/supply duty will always have an escort, and the passenger staterooms will carry a platoon of marines. These ships are mostly found as ore carriers or for hauling large prefabricated equipment from one system to another.
Other Notes
The design is based on a long cylinder hull, with a bulb-shaped bridge at the nose and a large square box aft for the drives. The cargo bays are in the huge cylinders that wrap around the center of the hull.
Design Notes
Crew: These ships carry a bare minimum of human crew, supplemented by 24 robotic cargo handlers for loading/unloading duties.Cargo Hold: separated into eight separate bays, all compartmentalized heavily to protect all the cargos. Five of the bays hold 3,000 spaces each and the last three hold 700 spaces each. There is also a ninth cargo bay, but it is used for storage aboard ship only. Each cargo bay has an elevator large enough to accommodate a 100-ton shuttle. Large remote cranes are also mounted in the ceilings of each cargo bay, two are mounted on tracks that rotate 360 degrees and run the length of each bay. Each crane can lift 30 tons.
Shuttle Bay: Four standard 100-ton shuttles are carried in a spacedock, which is below and forward of the #2 cargo hold.
Cargo Handlers: Each ship is equipped with 24 Voelkers XM-8 Robotic cargo handlers. These are very simple robots with auxiliary drone capability, that are normally controlled from the cargo office, or by a human with a remote box. These robots are tracked, and are capable of towing a 25-ton contragrav-equipped trailer.
Cargo Modules: Retractable attachment points and tie-downs in the floors of each bay allow for the use of standard 1-, 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, and 50-ton cargo containers. Larger containers can be secured with multiple tie-downs or movable bulkheads. If a cargo requires special handling, individual modules are set up with the necessary requirements, or in the case of a large cargo, the bays can be configured environmentally for special needs.
Special Robots: Each ship carries 6 Voelkers CFR-552 Fire Fighting/Rescue Robots. These are designed for damage control tasks, and for search and salvage duties. These humanoid robots are capable of more autonomous actions, and have good sensor and communications capability.
Cargo Office: This office is in the center of the #1 cargo deck. It has five workstations for the cargo staff, and for remote control of the cargo bots. During loading and unloading operations, the ship's internal Internal Security is run from this office. The cargo office Is designed as a basic bridge but with no sensor capability.
Tanker Capabilities: Each of the cargo bays can be equipped with collapsible bladder tanks for fuel or other gases, liquids, or hazardous bulk solids. Fittings are provided for transfer pumps to get the materiel from the tanks to the waiting ships. If the ships are pulling tanker duty, they will need extra refining capacity, as they don't have enough capacity to refine any extra tankage.
Article publication date: February 12, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.
