Balearic class Wild trader

[Xerxeskingofking]

Hey. this is my first attempt at a ship with the MgT 2nd ed HG rules, so this is something of an experiment. The design underwent quite a few last minute revisions as I ran the numbers*, so please review at point out any inconsistences you spot.

anyway, I give you the Balearic class Wild trader. flavour backstory to follow.

400 ton Balearic class Wild trader. TL 11
Hull: 400 tons (20Mcr), Streamlined (+20% cost 10Mcr)
Hull total: 30Mcr.

Drives:
M drive: Thrust 3 (12 tons, 24Mcr)
J drive: Jump 2, (20 tons, 30MCr).
P Plant: TL8 Fusion , 250PP (25 tons, 12.5Mcr)
Built at TL11, 10% smaller, 10% more PP
275PP, 22.5Tons 13.75Mcer
Power requirements:
Normal running: 80PP
M drive: 120PP
Jump: 80PP
Weapons: 24 PP
Fuel: 1x J2, 4 weeks (83 tons)
Drives total: 137.5 tons, 67.75Mcr

Bridge: 20 tons, 2Mcr
Computer: Comp/15, 2Mcr
Sensors: Military grade. (2 tons,2Mcr)

Crew:
Pilot:1
Astro: 1
Engineer: 2
Maintenance: 1
Gunners: 2
Officer: 1
Total: 8
Staterooms: 8 (32 tons, 4Mcr)
Common areas 8 tons 0.8 Mcr
10 low berths: 5 tons 0.5MCr)
Crew totals 67 tons, 10.9Mcr

Weapons:
4 hardpoints
2 Triple Pulse laser turrets, Resilient, easy to repair (2tons 6.5Mcr)
Weapons total: 2 tons, 6.5Mcr)

Extras:
Cargo: 168 tons
2 tons fuel processor: (all fuel in 2 days) 0.1Mcr
Cargo crane 3 tons, 3MCr
Aerofins: 20 tons. 2Mcr

Running total: 400 tons, 126Mcr
Monthly maintenance costs: 12,341 Cr/month
Monthly mortgage cost: 525,000 Cr/month.




*

Spoiler:

my first draft had all 4 turrets and 10 points of armour, but would need to make something like 3.2 J2 jumps a month in order to show a profit under mortgage, so I stripped out features in order to get it to just under 2 jumps a month. as is, it still needs to be running full every jump to break even on a pure freight load, so it either needs to take passengers or trade on spec to make up the cash. The classic 400 ton subbie trader is the same size, but has much less powerful drives, which makes it cheaper and gives it a bigger cargo bay

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Backstory.

The Balearic class was a light cargo ship introduced by the Terran Confederation during the colony boom after the Third Interstellar War, when Terra itself had been besieged and subjected to orbital bombardment by Vlani forces. The Confederation responded by making a concerted and sustained effort to found new, self substianing colonies in the Outback and Near Boötes Cluster, the latter helped by the building of Panama Station deep space refuelling station between Remulak and Cameroon.


Despite the importance the Confederation government gave this endeavour, Many of these colonies were very basic, often lacking many of the landing assistance systems present on terra and other well established worlds. as such, the Balearic was designed to operate with minimal outside assistance, with state of the art sensor systems, integrated cargo handling gantries and large aerofoils and control surfaces that gave the Balearic class almost unrivalled handling in the atmosphere. Indeed, In many cases, it was easier to land a Balearic directly at the outstations that needed the cargo than it was to land a atmospheric shuttle form the colony hub, as the bigger star ship could drop straight down form orbit, power though weather that the smaller shuttles would struggle with, and land on a landing site marked with nothing more sophisticated than a Radio beacon and a strobe light. her 3g gravtic drives, when run at a low power setting, allowed the Balearic to float on most bodies of water, vastly increasing the number of potential landing sites by turning every lake and bay into a starport. this was particularly useful in the colonisation of waterworlds like Calgary and Hephaistos, as it allowed the colony boats to be resupplies well out to seam greatly increasing their flexibility.


the design remained in constant, but low rate, production and use throughout the Interstellar wars and the Rule of Man, always operating on the outer edge of explored space, servicing the marginal colonial routes where the higher mark-up compensated for the cargo tonnage lost to the more powerful engines and the aerofoils. it was this service that earned the class its designation as a "wild trader", a name which as stuck with it though the Long Night.

The Balearic is still encountered today on the outskirts of the Imperium, most often on worlds with poor starports or well off the beaten track, turning a small but steady profit on these backwater routes. Many have been customised with a myriad of minor and major modifications, some of which were popular enough to have become recognised sub classes, such as the Hansa class passenger ship .