The Commercial Fleet

[Glen Allen Mcinnes]

Ok we got a fairly good run (about two weeks) on the Type-S so I was thinking on doing the same thing for all those merchant vessels we all love (and hate) I was thinking between 200-1000 tons, they can be original designs ore modifications on standard classes, throw in some back ground on them and any slimier designs (i.e. the March and the Petty share the same stats) and prove that even Civyies can have some fun out in the space lanes

 

[vutpakdi]

To kick it off, here is a converted 200 dTon far trader based on the real world ORBIS (a converted DC-10) :

============================================================================
Ship Description / Background
============================================================================

In the year 905 of the Third Imperium, a minor noble from the Glimmerdrift
Reaches, Baron Hakar, took a grand tour of historic sites in the Solomani
Rim Sector. On his stop to Sol, he chanced across historical records
detailing the work of an ancient organization dedicated to restoring sight
to those not fortunate to live where first class medical facilities were
commonplace. Inspired by the records and looking for a purpose, Baron Hakar
decided to recreate the organization, ORBIS.

After humble beginnings, ORBIS has grown considerably. Starting with only
the Baron's yacht, ORBIS now has 7 small starships that are dedicated to
bringing more advanced eye surgery techniques to less developed worlds.

Each ORBIS ship has been converted to a mobile teaching hospital complete
with a surgery suite, recovery room, classroom, and technical support shop.
Most ships are converted Far Traders since the J2 range is very helpful
in reaching systems off of the mains.

The ORBIS ships travel to less developed worlds where the surgeons perform
needed eye surgeries, teach local medical staff how to best perform eye
surgeries given their local tech level, and repair local equipment in the
technical support shop. A typical visit to a world last 2 months, and the
ship usually travels to a new site on the planet each week or two.

ORBIS ships are typically crewed by retired medical, scout, merchant, or
navy personnel. Some are volunteers while others are employed (at
reduced rates) by ORBIS.

ORBIS gets support from major medical supply corporations and some shipping
lines. In particular, the ImpEx courier service provides free maintenance
at its bases and even donated the 5th ORBIS ship, ORBIS 5 aka ImpEx Vision.

The ImpEx Vision is a 43 year old, converted Princess Kyuseita class
Far Trader (formerly the Lady Gyrel). To execute the conversion, the
ImpEx engineers:
- Converted the main cargo hold into a mobile hospital with:
- a surgery suite
- a recovery suite
- a class room
- a technical support/engineering shop
- a reception and prep areas
- Converted the two port crew cabins into an isolation sickbay
- Converted the captain's quarters into a conference room

The ImpEx Vision retains 19 tons of cargo space split between a rear cargo area
and storage in the former cargo locks.

The ImpEx Vision does retain the T-12 fuel purification plants.

Though a clearly marked medical vessel, the ImpEx Vision is armed with
two dual turrets, each containing a sandcaster and a beam laser.

The ship is crewed by 3 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 ship's crew, and 2 technicians.
The crew are housed in the former passenger quarters and the starboard
crew cabin. The cabins are double occupency except for the one occupied
by the chief physician/captain.

In T20 terms:
Replace 66 tons of cargo with:
- 6 tons T-12 fuel purification plant
- 12 tons classroom
- 8 tons operating suite
- 8 tons recovery suite
- 2 tons prep suite
- 6 tons technical support/repair shop
- 4 tons examination clinic/reception
- 1 tons 2 freshers
- 19 tons cargo

Replace 2 cabins with 1 sickbay.

I did make some deckplans for the ImpEx Vision.

Ron

 

[The Oz]

Here's a ship that found some use in my old Rimward Horizon campaign. Both the ship and the launch are strict CT Book 2 designs, except for adding in a 1/5th size TL-12 fuel purification plant from HG.
=================================================

Along the rimward edge of one rimward sector the further exploitation of space has been blocked by the existence of the Rimward Rainbow, a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas containing few star systems, and those few being young and usually without planets. Several efforts to penetrate the dust cloud have been made, but those that returned always reported failure. The difficulty is that stars are more widely separated in the dust cloud (always jump-2, often jump-3 or greater), and it is not always easy to tell if refueling sources are available in the next system (thanks to interference from the dust cloud) and jumping blind into a system 3 or 4 parsecs distant is a good way to not come home again.

RIPI (Rimward Investments and Properties, Inc.) a diversified corporation (they'll try anything that might make a profit) came into possession of an alien artifact that seemed to indicate the existence of a technologically advanced civilization beyond the Rimward Rainbow and determined to attempt contact. To this end, they modified a standard Type R Subsidized Merchant into a Long-Range Explorer capable of jump-2 twice without refueling, brought together a team of scientists and technicians, and hired an experienced (but expendable) crew for the ship, renamed the Rimward Explorer.

The major part of the conversion of the Rimward Explorer (ex-RIPI Venture) involved dividing the two-deck-tall cargo deck horizontally into a mid-deck that is mostly fuel tankage and a lower deck that contains the launch dock, cargo space, and laboratory space.

From bow to stern on the lower deck, the Rimward Explorer has:

A 20-ton dock for the exploratory launch, entering and departing through the bow cargo doors , the slip for the air/raft (exiting through the port cargo door which is now an airlock large enough for the air/raft), and 30 dtons of cargo space (mostly for supplies for extended operations). The starboard cargo door has been plated over. This area keeps the two-deck-tall structure of the original ship and extends to just aft of the side cargo doors. Astern of the cargo bay, the lower deck becomes only one deck (3 meters) tall, and has 30 dtons of space dedicated to scientific laboratories, for astronomy, planetary science, and biological science. Instruments needing an exterior view have access to space through hatches in the bottom of the hull. Also found here are the eight low berths, mostly for returning biological specimens to known space. The scientific spaces extend for 12 meters along the lower deck. Aft of the science labs, the mid-deck fuel tankage extends downward, blocking access to the rear cargo hatch (which has also been plated over). The two ladders from the upper engineering space now pass through narrow access trunks, allowing crewmen to reach the hatches leading to the fuel scoops, maneuver drives, and wing maintenance crawlways.

To get the desired jump performance, a D-class jump drive (and D-class powerplant to run it) were refitted to the engineering spaces. The space needed was partially obtained by using the volume formerly used by the low berths, and the rest was taken from the mid-deck directly underneath the engineering spaces. The drives on the mid-deck are accessed via the two access ladders in the engineering spaces. Also located here is the six tons of the TL-12 fuel refinery.

The upper deck is mostly unchanged. The computer has been upgraded to a model/5, with the additional electronics located on the mid-deck and accessed by a maintenance hatch in the bridge deck behind the pilot's chair. The former dorsal access to the launch has been converted into an airlock, with an iris valve closing the space off from the crew lounge. The crew of six (pilot, navigator, two engineers, two gunners) occupy the crew staterooms while the science team (astronomer, planetary scientist, xenobiologist, medical doctor, four technicians) occupy the passenger staterooms. Each crewman and scientist has an individual stateroom for comfort during the extended duration of the ships' missions.

The Rimward Explorer carries two triple turrets (on the bridge hardpoints), each turret mounting one missile rack (mostly used for launching survey drones), one beam laser, and one sandcaster.

The 20-ton launch is a customized model having two small craft staterooms allowing extended operations away from the ship. There are four tons of space dedicated to scientific instruments, and five tons of cargo space (accessed by a hatch on the port side of the launch) that can be used for passengers (with fold-down seating for up to 10 persons), or supplies, or to ferry the air/raft planetside. The launch has a bridge for a crew of two, and is unarmed. It is capable of 1-G acceleration.

Long-Range Explorer (Type XR): (values in parentheses are unchanged from the Type R)
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Component Tonnage MCr
400 ton standard hull, streamlined (400) (20)
Jumpdrive-D, jump-2 25 40
Powerplant-D, factor-2 13 32
Maneuver drive-C, 1-G (5) (12)
Fuel tankage, 2 jump-2, 30 days 180 ---
TL-12 Fuel purification plant 6 0.032
Bridge (20) (2)
Model/5 computer 5 45
2 triple turrets (BL, SD, MS) 2 6.2
14 staterooms (56) (7)
8 low berths 4 0.4
20-ton exploratory launch 20 17.35
Air/raft 4 0.6
30 tons laboratory space 30 30
30 tons cargo/supplies 30 ---
Total 400 171.582</pre>[/QUOTE]20-ton Exploratory Launch
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Component Tonnage MCr
20 ton launch, 1-G, 13 tons custom (20) 13
Science lab 4 4
2 small craft staterooms 4 0.1
Cargo/passenger space 5 0.25
Total 20 17.35 </pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[far-trader]

From my CT files...

Some of the ships in old CT LBB need minor correction or explanation to work, this was not one of them, until I meddled...

The Free-Trader only needed a little work because of my changes* to the Standard Hulls table. I changed the split of the Drives section and Main section for the 200T hull. It made no sense to me that the 100T and 200T hulls had the same split, so I upped it to 25T for the Drives section and reduced the Main section to 175T for the 200T hull. This would later prove to make good sense as it allows for the Far-Trader's increased performance.

* I also changed the split of the 800T standard hull to 675 v 125 and the costs of all the standard hulls to reflect a standard 60% discount across the board.

The only wrinkle in my changes, with respect to this ship, was that it reduced the cargo to 72T. However this introduced a nice little quirk. Does the Captain haul cargo in the 10T empty part of the Drive section? Will he get caught and fined, or will there maybe be a fire? Or...

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">TAS Form 3s - Ship's Papers (Short Form)...... Commissioned 218-0967

Ship Name - Sigurd..................... Registration - ICSR-013-0992

Type A - Trader TL-9..................... Discounted Cost Mcr037.080

Hull - 200.0T Standard Streamlined/Fuel Scoops........... Crew - 004

Jump Drive A - J1..... Maneuver Drive A - 1G..... Power Plant A - 1P

Jump Fuel 1P - 20.0T..... Power Plant/Maneuver Drive Fuel 4W - 10.0T

Staterooms - 10L/00S... Low Berths - 20S/00E... Cargo Hold - 0072.0T

Computer - Model 1std........ Hardpoints - 002........ Turrets - 000</pre>[/QUOTE]Notes - The Sigurd is typical as Beowulf class Type A Free-Traders go. They all start out the same but over time each one develops distinctive features. This particular ship is said to be cursed and has in fact gone through 6 owners and 3 banks. The current mortage holder is quite glad that the final payment is imminent and it is doubtful that anyone who knows the ship's history will front a second mortage for the desperately needed overhaul.

The current Captain doesn't believe in luck, good or bad, or curses and such, but crewing the Sigurd gets more difficult all the time and the only passengers are either desperate enough to ignore the history, or ignorant enough to simply not know it.

This class of ships have 10T reserved for engineering upgrades though many owners will ignore safty regulations and fill the space with cargo to try to make a profit or at least keep up the payments. The ship has six passenger staterooms and twenty low berths. Two hardpoints are ready for weapons but none are installed.

Standard crew are Pilot, Engineer, Steward and Medic.

The Sigurd has two Save4You life pods installed in the turrets, from a previous paranoid Captain who died while practice drilling the passengers in how to enter and activate the pod. When he stepped in he stumbled and hit the cryo activation. When he was revived he suffered severe low berth sickness and died. A thourough check of the pod found no faults and the death was ruled accidental.

-------

Hmm, I seem to have misplaced my notes for the Save4You life pods but from memory they were (a bit of a handwave)...

A simple turret mounted 1T spherical hull capable of holding 4 average humans in cramped conditions with the ability to operate as an emergency low berth. If the ship is threatened with destruction they can be blasted clear and are equipped to make a soft landing from orbit under most circumstances (roll 2d6 2+ to survive with DM -1 per world size). An emergency survival kit with a locator becon is included in the center column of the pod. The cost is MCr0.25 per pod including installation. If ordered with the ship purchase they are eligible for the standard 10% discount.

-------

By the way, the "Registration" format for mtu then shows the service or ministry of registration for the ship ("ICSR" for example being the Imperial Commercial Ships Registry), and the issuing number for that class of the year ("013-0992" above was the thirteenth Type A registered in 992). It was a much smaller Imperium at the time

Today I'd probably keep the same form but ammend it to be the registration number for the building shipyard and add that to the description.

 

[aramis]

"Gutbuster" Qship.
A sandard type R is modified by installing a concealed 50 ton bay in one end of the cargo tunnel. most coomon is a fusion bay, for damage and power...

This design originates with the "Dred Pyrate" D.P. Quint, originally hailing from Vland sector, but of notably solomani ancestry. All his imperial documents use D P Quint, but it is assumed they were obtainedbased on forged local documents.
This modification has figured prominently in four or more of his ships, eah with a different bay mount.

(Game notes: The optional bay mounting rules from T20 are needed for this to be legal.)