Forums of the Megaverse®

LOL Ok I deserve that!

KLM wrote:

taalismn wrote: V.R.I.S.N. Taran....

Did that name came just by random or...?

(Wikipedia it)

Adios
KLM

Okay...now I gotta see what blunder I just pulled unknowingly...

Strange is all I can say! What language did you look it up in KLM?

With apologies to Roscoe Del'Tane

Lonrishikie ‘NagFang’ Punch-Ship

“SUGYB---Small, Ugly, and Gunning for Your Blood---I HATE dealing with warrior races....they have a nasty habit of turning EVERYTHING into a weapon, a means to regain lost honor, and a means to go out in a blaze of glory...The only GOOD thing you can say about them is that you don’t have to hold your fire for fear of hurting some innocent civilian of theirs, because there ain’t any...They’re ALL expected to know the risks, take the consequences, and wield weapons in the honor of the species, so they’re all legit targets....”
----Klaus Hammeran, Bounty Hunter

A common vessel in the ranks of the mercenary Lonrishikie people, the NagFang is classified somewhere between ‘light tug’ and ‘fighter’ in Three Galaxies ship terms, since it’s certainly used in both shipyard and military duties. It’s more of a light shuttle, but armored like a gunship, and packs enough firepower to maul a fighter of equivalent weight, though it lacks the speed and maneuverability to keep up with dedicated fighters.
The NagFang resembles a old-fashioned clothes-iron crossed with an old-fashioned warship, with a boat-like hull, protruding ram prow, and large side turrets mounting several different caliber/type weapons. Four large engine venturis with bulging lateral maneuvering jets, two small folding wing-fins, and a large rear airlock hatch complete the craft.
NagFangs are used for a variety of duties; as spacestation inspection pods, light tugs, auxiliary shuttles, and as training craft for young warriors. In combat, they are frequently used to launch flanking boarding maneuvers on enemy ships, their small complements of troops deployed to cut sensor antennae and divert the attention of defenders away from the main assault. They are also used as close-defense fighters, where mobile firepower, and not maneuverability or range, is the issue. Often, the Lonrishikie, when they are old and decrepit, and beginning to feel the onset of ‘The Undoing’(the return of pain sensations to failing nervous systems) elect to ride into battle one last time aboard a punch-ship, rather than take a tour of ‘living death’ bound to a lfe support couch aboard a ‘looney-bin’....These geriatric squadrons with their particularly carefree and suicidal attitudes in combat have been the undoing of more than one opponent who wasn’t expecting such kamikaze tactics.
Because it has no sensitve or proprietary technologies, the NagFang is freely sold by the Lonrishikie, though it is rumored that the Lonrishikie retain a transponder code that allows them to remotely detonate the integral self-destruct charge aboard their surplus ships. Despite this, the ships are quite popular with mercenaries, pirates, and other fringe elements, owing to the ships’ heavy armor, low cost, and heavy armament.
Type: L-US-023 NagFang
Class: Light Shuttle
Crew: 3 (pilot and two gunners)+1-6 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 800
Weapons Turrets(2) 180 each
Mini-Missile Launcher 200
Ram Prow 700
Forcefield 800
Height: 25 ft
Width: 32 ft
Length: 60 ft
Weight: 8 tons
Cargo: 1 ton of gear
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 25 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 7
(Kitsune Values: 20 % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.7% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) Not Possible
(Underwater) Can move at 30 MPH, and endure depths of about 2,000 ft
Market Cost: 25 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Spacecraft Systems
Weapons Systems:
1) Weapons Turrets(2)---Mounted partially in the lateral sides and on the roof of the Punch-Ship are two weapons stations mounting a rapid-fire gravity cannon, a short raneg ion blaster, and a particle beam cannon.
Range:(Ion Blaster)4,000 ft in atmosphere, 2.5 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2.5 miles in atmosphere, 250 miles in space)
(Particle Beam) 1 mile in atmosphere, 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 3 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space)
(G-Cannon)8,000 ft in atmosphere, 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 3 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space)
Damage:(Ion Blaster) 1d6x10 MD per blast
(Particle Beam) 2d6x10 MD per blast
(G-Cannon) 1d6x10 +10 MD per 40 rd burst
Rate of Fire: (Ion Blaster)EPCHH
(Particle Beam) EPCHH
(G-Cannon)EPCHH
Payload: (Ion Blaster) Effectively Unlimited
(Particle Beam) Effectively Unlimited
(G-Cannon) 800 bursts

2) Nose Lasers(2)---Mounted high in the nose(approximately where anchor chain ports would be in a boat) are two high-powered lasers controlled by the pilot. These are typically used in strafing attacks, as well as to soften up targets for ramming.
Range: 1 mile in atmosphere, 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 3 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD single blast, 4d4x10 MD for both cannons firing simultaneously(counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Mini-Missile Launcher(1, dorsal)---Typically, this launcher is used to reduce space debris to even smaller space debris, and to entertain bored young warriors, but it is also a most effective anti-fighter weapon.
Range:Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 100 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-8
Payload: 32 missiles

4) Ram Prow---As befits its name, the punch-ship mounts a reinforced ramming prow. Under normal duties, this is simply a reinforced nose for pushing heavy ships, cargo pods, and asteroids around, but in combat, the ‘beak’ can be used to stave in the side of a starship, or rip open a fighter.
Damage: 4d6x10 xMach Speed number

5) Self-Destruct Charge.----Because if you can’t walk out the other side of battle with the enmey’s blood covering you, no point in letting him claim yours...Lonrishikie, being real spoilsports when it comes to conceding defeat, LOVE to overturn the chessboard with a good suicide charge underneath, and their ships are no different.
Range: 200 ft blast radius
Damage: 1d6x100 MD
If already lodged inside a ship’s hull as part of a ramming attack, does 1/3 MORE damage.

Aramanthus wrote:Strange is all I can say! What language did you look it up in KLM?

Taran "popped up" from my memories as a ramming techniqe,
and while wikipedia does not mention it, I have heard rumors
that the manouver got its name from a female soviet pilot
(who died by ramming a german plane).

Adios
KLM
guilty of not reading the article about the Pict king

WEll, the literary reference suggests some things I can do with the Second Syndian War...

Which novel series is that from Taalismn?

Syndian Adris-San-class Destroyer

“Hey, Serge! Is it true Valar-Ryzellian women go into combat wearing only metal bikinis?”
“Yeah, it’s true! And nice sharp little curved short swords too! And I’d keep my vacsuit on, hard-helm locked on the back of my collar ring, and eyes glued to the sensor monitors in case one of them in the sector heard that and decides to come over and rip out my hormone-producing glands, if I were you, cadet! Heck, if Engineering is right about these new improved deep-scanners we picked up from the Consortium, you should be able to see right through their hulls with the quantum-length radar and see for yourself what they’re really wearing!”
----Overheard on bridge of SRGS Walking the Line, Syndian Republic Guardian Fleet

The Adris-San class is an older Syndian Republic design based on a military conversion of the government-sponsored Halas-class transport, a staid and reliable design that has served the Republic well. With their large deep-bellied, slab-sided, ‘V’ aft fuselages, protruding high-set shovel-prowed forward hulls, and wide, cross-bar sensor arrays, Adris-class DDs were a common sight in Syndian military flotillas and fleets.
The Adris-class served in the Republic before the Syndian-Ryzellian War as a picket ship and domestic security vessel, where its long range sensor capabilities were an asset to its role as a stellar ‘coast guard’ vessel. As hostilies along the Valar-Ryzellian border ramped up, however, the Syndians realized that the Adris’s light armament would little avail it against Ryzellian raiders. The ships were hastily upgunned as much as they could, an extension to the nose added to accommodate a missile launcher battery, a variable forcefield generation system added on, and extra armor applied to vital areas of the hull. The modified vessels were quickly moved to positions along the border where their long range sensors would be used to best effect in detecting the expected Ryzellian incursions.
The Adris-class’s strengths include excellent long range sensors and a large, roomy, hangar bay originally meant for accommodating rescue and police shuttles, but which could easily carry a squadron of fighters. Initially, these were adapted light shuttles, then mostly SRGF Tetreshes(the Syndian license-copy of the CCW SF-69 Scorpion), then increasing numbers of the SRGF’s latest fighters, the Renay and the Aban(the latter based on the Kittani K-ATV Hover-Jet). The high ratio of auxiliary craft pilots to ship crew has incidentally led to the ships being tagged as ‘mini-carriers’, and sparked more than a few friendly rivalries aboard the ships between the ‘flitterheads’ and the ‘deckhogs’ as the fighter pilots and ship crews often call each other.
The weaknesses of the Adris are a light weapons complement, modest armor, and only mediocre maneuverability. Even with beefed-up variable forcefields, the Adrises cannot handle much damage, and wise captains try to avoid engaging enemy forces directly. Judicious use of the long range sensors to spot trouble well in advance, and the deployment of long range missile fire and a fighter screeen are the Adrises’ best hope in combat. This was a tactical philosophy encouraged by the Syndian Gurad High Command, who hoped it would be enough. Hopefully, knowing that they would be quickly spotted well before they closed to combat range, would be enough to dissuade the Valar-Ryzellians from ever attempting an attack.
However, when the Valar-Ryzellians finally struck across the border systems into Syndian space, the Adrises were among the first Republic warships to engage them in combat. They quickly proved their mettle, their long range sensors alerting them in time to launch accurate missile salvos and deploy their fighter squadrons early in battle, but in close combat, the Adrises proved vulnerable. Invading Ryzellian forces outnumbered and outmassed them, and the lightly armed Adrises were blasted from the spacelanes. Surviving Adrises were pulled back from the forward combat regions and re-assigned as escorts for larger ships, where their sensors could provide adequate warning, while at the same time the larger batteries of the capital ships could protect the destroyers from massed enemy squadrons.
Though the Syndian-Ryzellian War has shown the Adris’s shortcomings, the ship continues to soldier on in service, being replaced in front-line service as the newer Justisis-class enters wider distribution. Adrises have since been pulled back to system picket duty. A handful of older vessels, typically stripped of their armaments and the more advanced sensor hardware, have been sold as surplus to various government and private concerns.

Type:SR-DD 12 Adris
Class: Picket Destroyer
Crew: 20+10 marines and 16 pilots
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 5,000
Bridge 1,400
Sensor Array 1,300
Long Range Missile Launchers(4) 500 each
Medium Laser Cannon(2) 500 each
Point Defense Turrets(4) 180 each
Hangar Bay 1,400
Variable Forcefields 1,200 per side, 7,200 total

Height: 90 ft
Width: 100 ft
Length: 350 ft
Weight: 7,000 tons
Cargo: 700 tons
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 50 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight) Mach 9
(Kitsune Values: 60 % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.95% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 300 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Long Range Sensors---The large midships ventral ‘crossbar’ contains the bulk of the Adris’s heavy long range sensors, that are roughly equal to the CAF’s DLA systems, but which don’t require as much set-up and deployment time, though the hardware is still bulky. The Syndian system isn’t QUITE as effective as the CCW’s technologies, but can be used on the move. The sensors can pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 21 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 0.9 light years away.
Also, thanks to the far-spanning Syndian mercantile associations, the Syndian Guard have compiled an impressive database on known commercial and military vessels in the Three Galaxies. Though far from complete, the Syndian ID database gives the Adrises a fair chance of proper recognition of a vessel’s type and likely configuration, even at long range(+10%)

*Superior Targetting---The Adrises’ superior sensors also give their weapons an additional +2 to strike.

Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)---The extended nose section of the Adris mounts two long range missile launchers, and the rear hull holds an additional two tubes fared into the hull-sides. The Syndians use a high-speed magnetic acceleration system that throws the missile out at high speed before main propulsion ignition and active targetting comes online, enough to extend the range by as much as 10%, and also can delay enemy recognition of a missile launch. During the Syndian-Valar-Ryzellian War, this system earned the Adrises the nickname ‘Churor’(“Sniper”) among Ryzellian crews, who used a conventional cold-gas jection system for their own missile launchers.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-3
Payload: 30 missiles per launcher, 120 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

2) Medium Laser Cannons(2)---Two powerful lasers are mounted in the nose section in extending turrets.
Range:6 miles in atmosphere,12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 12 miles in atmosphere, 12,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per single barrel, 2d6x100 MD for two cannons firing simultaneously(counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire:Three shots per melee
Payload:Effectively Unlimited

3) Point Defense Cannon Arrays(4)---Each of these weapons turrets mounts a rapid-fire laser and a gatling-style rail cannon. Two deploy from the lateral aft flanks, while the other pair deploy from the sides of the forward fuselage, abaft the missile launchers.
Range:(Lasers) 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space)
(Rail Cannon) 1 mile in atmosphere, 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 3 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space)
Damage:(Lasers) 2d4x10 MD per blast
(Rail Cannon) 2d6x10 MD per 20 rd burst
Rate of Fire:(Lasers) EGCHH
(Rail Cannon) EGCHH
Payload:(Lasers) Effectively Unlimited
(Rail Cannon) 500 bursts

Auxiliary Craft:
12 Aerospace Fighters
1 Shuttle

Variants:
Many Adrises continue in their original role as police/stellar coast guard vessels, with part of their hangar bays converted into enlarged sickbays for treating rescuees, or prison brigs for handling prisoners. A number have also been converted to scientific survey vessels, fitted with additional sensor arrays, carrying probe-drones in their missile launcher magazines, heavier landers and rover units carried in the hangar bay, and part of the holds converted to laboratory facilities.

Very nice ship Taalismn! I still have to get my ships restarted and finished.

Thank you....I'm hunting my vast collection of aerospace and sci-fi art books for inspirations, as well as my old sketches, and applying the designs to the various races and settings run forward on these forums...

That sounds pretty cool! I know it can be hard sometimes. Especially when you have reports to write at work.

Hmmm...maybe something for the Central Alliance like a super-giant Assault Cyborg along the lines of the CCW's Battleram robots...A combination assault shuttlecraft/robot/super-cyborg....

I could see that. I could alsso see that having several brains associated with it.

Just found this article (made by me some time ago), about the
Golgan Republikan Guard...

Want me to translate it?

http://member.rpg.hu/peterpg/index.php? ... m_golganok

Adios
KLM

I can't tell, since I can't open it here at work. I'll have to try when I get home! Thank you for sharing the link KLM!

Hades Yes, I Want a Translation!

So do I!!! Can I please have one too!

Gracias, KLM...our intelligence files on the Republik grow more complete thanks to your contribution!
----Anonymous Central Guard apparatchik...

Thank you KLM!!! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it!

Stinexx Blaxxtar Galactic Exploration Cruiser

“Entered solar target system #zol342453 upon detection of organized EM activity consistant with activities of Class 3 civilization....Inbound vector adjusted to intercept and investigate outworld designate #5, determined to be source of activity...Level 2 signal stealthing activated and cloaked probes deployed until proper contact/evasion protocol parameters determined.
Detected intermittant EM and radiation events consistant with Class 4 armaments in mass deployment. Diminishment of size level 13 contacts in immediate vicinity of target coincidental with spike in number of size level 2 -3 constructs consistant with mass deployment of missile systems. Level 4 signal stealthing activated and defensive armanents placed on alert 3 status.
Forward probes determine that outworld designate #5 unsuited for life. Cessation of organized zan-band emissions, spikes in radiation and thermal activity consistant with Case 5 extinction event. Single lunar body, designate lunar body 01, determined to be sole source of remaining sentient activity. EM and projectile activity consistant with Class 4 armaments have diminished. Thez-range detection band EM activity detected. No activity consistant with deep space search activity detected. Level 4 signal stealthing and alert 3 weapons status remain in effect.
Terrestrial probes dispatched to lunar body 02. Multiple Class 3 armament events detected on surface. Armored landers dispatched to target regions ein42323 and ein42352, speculate presence of isolated sentients.
Tentative investigation of structures and deceased lifeforms on lunar surface identify local dominant lifeform as taxonomic classification U-ds5444, within +/-0.2% with environmental adjustment of equivalent. Evaluation and sampling of artifacts/hardware continued.
Armored Rover &er34528, assigned ein42323, successful in isolating two sentients in EVA garmature, outside subterranean habitation, despite attempts to damage probes with small arms(hardware classification !-5983, projectile, portable, !-7563, gas-laser, portable). Specimens successfully subdued, captured, and confined for return to basecraft.
Recon unit at ein42352 study area under fire by automated weapons systems. One rover destroyed. Efforts to continue study and obtain additional life specimens suspended and surviving units withdrawn. Presence wipe protocols enacted with obliteration of irretrievable hardware.
Specimens removed from EVA garmature(retained for technological analysis) and restrained for biological study. Initial aggressive/hysterical behavior subdued with application of GCA Solution -(354 and multiple point electro-neural subliminal stim. Initial semi-voluntary questioning has yielded ‘name, rank, serial number’. Cortical scans initiated. Increased aggression/agitation from specimens necessitate increased sedation, resulting in satisfactory steady-state biological function. Invasive, non-lehal, investigatory procedures implemented, with attention to neural studies and radiation accumulation in tissues. Verbal outburst from subject #2 during preparations of subject #1 for cranial EM induction scan, and prior to subject #2 endoprobe exploration of upper respiratory/digestive-tract, suggest acute aggression response in species and possible familial relationship between study- subjects.
Multiple projectile launch from aisn756675 has necessitated activation of forward batteries 1-3. Intercept at extreme range successful. Confirm presence of nucleonic weaponry. Noted as third contact with automated anti-spacecraft systems. Presence of active lethal hardware in-system noted.
Specimens identified as combatant support personnel, lower echelon organization rank(cultural index zim563478-orgas345-#634-’Paramilitary’ hierarchical code 5364), technician-operators, field, photonic artillery(confirm hardware classification !-7683 gas-laser, semi-portable). Presence of low-emisison isotopic residues(consitant with observation of low-yield plasmic weaponry in operation in vicinity) in soft tissues necessitate application of purgative/chelation solutions rz-433, rz-533, ab-432 required to remove inteference with high-resolution scanners and prevent speciman tissue deterioration.
Indexing of hardware sampling continued. Return probes accumulation of 48.37 tonne-units hardware, 75% non-functional, 95% evaluated of military-hierarchical nature. Discard of 15% after study owing to radiant residue contamination. Additional 20% discarded presence of live munitions/unneutralized ordnance.
Evaluation complete: target system #zol342453 designated Lethal Hazard(**War*) Zone Class-Number d14. Continued study not advised. Preparation made to leave system. Protocols advise retention of specimens rather than return to hostile, lethal, environment. Biological studies suggest permeation with Solution bc83485r4, immersion in Salate kh869584, with encasement in protective boro-silicate glass shell optimal for hiber-storage of specimens. Hiber-induction successfully implemented and specimens moved to deep-storage.
Destination solar target system designate #zol342460 selected. Llhan-drive activated.
---From the log of Blaxxtar Mod96784(Later named ‘Cyntheiad Searcher’ after rennovation and incorporation into the Dawasan Republic-Polity Galactic Studies Bureau Flotilla)

The Blaxxtar Exploration Cruisers are perhaps the last and most sophisticated relics of the once extent Stinnexx civilization, an alien culture that apparently explored the Three Galaxies some 80,000 years ago, and remained active as recently as 30,000 years ago, before they disappeared. While signs of their presence have been found in numerous systems, including satellites, ruined ships, and base facilities, no major Stinexx colonial enclave has ever been found, nor has their homeworld ever been located. Most xenologists believe that the Stinexx empire, living or dead, likely lies somewhere in the unexplored regions of the Three Galaxies, given the slow FTL speeds their technology was capable of, rather than they being extragalactic visitors, as has also been postulated.
From what has been deciphered and speculated from their technology and artifacts, the Stinexx were roughly humanoid beings sporting growths of spines along their heads and arms(travellers familiar with the TMNT universe might see some resemblance between them and the proto-Spinek of their own galaxy), and possessed an advanced technology that enabled them to conduct a thorough exploration of wide swathes of the Three Galaxies. To what purpose they were conducting such a massive undertaking and why they disappeared, leaving so much of their equipment behind, remains a mystery to this day.
The Blaxxtar Exploration Cruisers are perhaps their most enduring legacy to the later peoples of the Three Galaxies. Hundreds of these massive black-armored vessels were left behind, many wrecked and unusable where they came to grief in the galactic wilds, but many more have been found mothballed and abandoned in remote Stinexx bases, or drifting along on low-energy courses, acting like automated probes. Both of the latter cases would suggest the Stinexx meant to return to resume their work, or that their exploration programme was ongoing, but in the 40,000 years since their last appearance, the Stinexx have yet to return.
In the meantime, any enterprising species have elected to use the windfall of still-functional ships left them by the long-departed Stinexx. With a minimum of repair and rennovation, the ships are easily modified for use by other species. While the ships sport an array of heavy weaponry that is used to respond to imminent debris collisons and overtly hostile moves against them, those Blaxxtars with fully functioning AIs have taken no action against boarders who approach them carefully, and teh ships are easily turned over to manual crew command-control.
Large, black-armored, blunt-prowed, with a rounded fat cylindrical hull configuration broken up by sensor towers and docking bays at the midsection, twin engine bulges at the rear, and multiple sensor and weapons blisters covering the outer hull, Blaxxtars look extremely imposing at first glance. Compared to modern 3G starships, Stinexx Blaxxtars are massive, slow, and rely on old-fashioned hydrogen-fuelled fusion torch-drives and low-power traction systems. Their original forceshielding is primitive, and their armament heavy on projectile cannons. However, the ships are constructed of several exotic materials that allow the ships to survive massive amounts of damage, their redundant systems include automated repair, and the vessels practically run themselves. Their computer systems are quite sophisticated, and self-programming, but the Artificial Intelligences seem rather simple-minded and little concerned with newcomers or inclined to divulge information about the whereabouts of their creators (some engineers believe that the Stinexx either wiped the original AIs or removed the nuero-cores when they abandoned the ships, leaving them running on backup systems). The ships have accommodation for farirly large crews, but are just as capable of conducting scientific survey work on their own(as has been discovered to be the case with a dozen of these ships).
Another valued feature of the Blaxxtars is their automated fabrication facility, which produces spare parts and repair materials from harvested spacial debris and refined asteroid ores. The ships incorporate multiple redundancy, even the engines, only one of which is typically operating at any one time, while the ships’ robotic repair systems pull preventative maintenance on the other engine bloc. The autofacs also supply the guns with near-endless supplies of ammunition, especially simple kinetic-kill projectiles.
Blaxxtars have spacious small craft decks that can accommodate most modern shuttles and fightercraft. Some Blaxxtars carry their original complement of heavy probes and robotic lander craft, but most have either diminished complements or none at all, since replacement of the more complex robotic probe craft seems beyond the capacity of the onboard fabricators to accomplish(or else the replacement of fresh units has low priority).
A number of Blaxxtars have been salvaged and refitted by various concerns, mostly paramilitary and exploration groups , though several have become private yachts or flying museums. The ships have proven difficult to upgrade with modern weaponry(the antiquated shield system is physically intregrated into the hull, for instance, and efforts to upgrade the ships with modern variable forcefields generated by external pods, have proven to be ambigious successes), making unattractive to higher-end military organizations, though a number of border star-nations and less affluent worlds have deployed discovered and reconditioned Blaxxtars as part of their defense forces.
Modern day explorers dream of finding an intact and ‘virgin’ Blaxxtar, not only for their value as starships, but because of the possibility of finding original cargo in the ships’ sampling holds. Previous finds have turned up cargoes of valuable minerals, stasis-locked plant and animal species, cultural artifacts, and alien technology(including the occasional odd magic item), as well as starcharts of previously unexplored regions in the Thundercloud.
Type: Stinexx Blaxxtar
Class: Galactic Exploration Cruiser
Crew: Accommodations for up to 300
Robotic Command AI and 800-1,200 robotic maintenance drones
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 220,000
Bridge 70,000
Massdriver Cannons(12) 2,000 each
Particle Beam Cannon(2) 3,000 each
Rail Guns(32) 500 each
Laser Cannons(14) 900 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(6) 900 each
Hangar Bays(2) 2,000 each
Sensor Masts(6) 10,000 each
Drive Sections(2) 80,000 each
Forcefield 30,000*

*Regenerates at 15% per melee

Height: 800 ft
Width: 800 ft
Length: 3,000 ft
Weight: 850,000 tons
Cargo: 75,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Nuclear Fusion
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight) Mach 5
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.5% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 2 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: The current black market price for a functional Blaxxtar is 25+ billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Energy-Resistant Armor---The marbled black armor of the Blaxxtar is composed of several exotic materials that have intrinsic energy resistant properties...Lasers, particle beams, plasma weapons, and the like do only 1/2 their normal damage. Magic and projectile weaponry does normal damage.

*Long Range Sensors--- The original sensors can pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 22 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 0.9 light years away.

*Basic Stealthing---The Blaxxtars incorporate several levels of low-grade stealth...Hardly enough to evade the sensors of advanced cultures, but enough to go unnoticed by lower-tech species. 80% to evade Rifts Earth and lower tech sensors, 40% to evade 3G Galactic standard systems.

*Bussard Ramscoops---Mounted like jet air intakes in sides of main body, are magnetic intakes, normally protected in combat by armor shutters, for taking in interstellar hydrogen deflected safely into them by the navigational deflectors. In this way, on long range missions, the ship can replenish its hydrogen fuel supplies, ‘grazing’ off of hydrogen rich patches of space, cometary gas tails, or the upper atmosphere of gas giants, and replenish its fuel supply. This gives the ships near-infinite range, as long as they can find hydrogen-rich regions of space to refuel.

*Self-Repair Capabilities---The ship has advanced automated self-repair capabilities, including the ability to manufacture new spare parts and hull plating from onboard material stocks. So far, attempts to dismantle the fusion-powered material synthesis autofac in an attempt to discover how the Blaxxtars’ energy-resistant armor have resulted in catastrophic powerplant exploxions, so wise owners don’t go poking around.
The ships can repair up to 2d4x10 MD per minute, up to 30% of the ship’s total MDC, before needing to restock materials. Repairing/replacing a sensor antenna takes 2d4 days, a weapons turret may take 3d6 days, and rebuilding an engine will take 1d6 months.

-Automated Scientific Laboratories---Six bays in the midsection are fully automated research labs capable of conducting a wide battery of tests and studies on samples, Two are dedicated to astro-geological/material studies, one to xenotechnology studies, one to micro-biological studies, the fifth to botanical studies, and the sixth to xeno-biological studies(can siimultaneously study/examine up to four human-sized lifeforms)...In a pinch, the Xenobiology laboratory can operate as an automated sickbay with a profficiency equivalent to Medical Doctor at 80% for species it is thoroughly familiar with(or 20% for new species).

*Semi-Autonomous Artificial Intelligence---Blaxxtars are run by an onboard robotic AI that oversees ship functions, directs repairs, and is capable of conducting system survey work and making basic evaluations based on preprogrammed mission parameters.
The ship can operate all weapons systems in slef-defense, with the rate of fire listed under each respective weapons system.
The ship AI has the following skill programming:
Math: Basic & Advanced 99.9999%
Computer Operation 98%
ALL Communications 90%
Navigation: Space 98%
Astronomy 98%
Geology 90%
Biology 80%
Chemistry 95%
Chemistry: Analytical 95%
Electrical Engineering(self-repair) 98%
Mechanical Engineering(self-repair) 98%
Spaceship Mechanics(self-repair) 98%

Weapons Systems:
1)Massdriver Cannons(12)---These are hyper-velocity kinetic kill weapons that can strike as solid slug penetrators, or which can be set to break apart just before impact in a ‘shotgun spread’.
Range: 20 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 300 miles in atmosphere, 300,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Kinetic Slug) 6d6x100 MD
(Scattershot) 1d6x100 MD to a 1,000 ft wide swath
Rate of Fire: EGCHH(6 times per melee under computer operation)
Payload: 60 shells per cannon; additional shells can be reloaded from cargo holds within 45 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 6 shells)
The autofac can produce additional ammunition at a rate of 6 shells in 45 minutes
Note: The nature of the projectile weapon means that ships CAN detect the incoming shell at extreme range(anything over 2/3s of maximum range) and get a +6 to dodge. This bonus, however, is negated by a ‘shotgun spread’.

2) Particle Beam Cannon(2)---Mounted low in the forward hull are two heavy particle beam projectors. The emitters are actually used for scientific purposes, emitting particle streams for illuminating targets for multi-spectral analysis(such as scanning projectiles for the presence of fissionable materials...i.e. nuclear warheads), but ramped up to full power, they can do considerable damage.
Range: 16 miles in atmosphere, 90 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 90 miles in atmosphere, 90,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x1,000 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Once per melee per cannon (Once per melee under computer operation)
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Note: Can project a (non-damaging) particle scanning stream at 10x lethal(weapons) range

3)Laser Cannons(14)---These photonic cannons provide an effective defense against most missile and fighter platform weapons.
Range: 4 miles in atmosphere, 9 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 9 miles in atmosphere, 9,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee (4 times per melee under computer operation)
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4)Rail Guns(32)---These are basic rapid-fire electromagnetic acceleration weapons firimg bursts of metallic projectiles, machine-gun style, and are easily modified to accept modern rail gun ammunition types.
Range: 5 miles in atmosphere, 10 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 10 miles in atmosphere, 1,000 miles in space)
Damage: 3d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH(7 times per melee under computer operation)
Payload: 500 bursts per turret. Additional drums can be reloaded from the cargo holds within 30 minutes(a drum takes up a ton of cargo space)
The autofac can produce additional ammunition at a rate of a drum in 30 minutes

5) Long Range Missile Launchers(6)---These launchers are typically used to launch recon drones and disposable science-sats, but can also fire kinetic-kill interceptors and low-kiloton plasma weapons for defense.
The launchers CAN be modified to launch modern missile types, but the autofac CANNOT be altered to construct modern missile warheads and types.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Drone Missiles can ram for 2d6x10 MD to 15 ft radius
Kinetic Kill Missiles do 6d6x10 MD to 50 ft radius
Fragmentation Missiles do 2d6x10 MD to 100 ft radius
Plasma Warheads do 1d4x100 MD to 50 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-5(3 times per melee under computer operation)
Payload: 30 missiles per launcher, 180 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles). The autofac can produce additional missiles as follows: kinetic-kill missiles; 12 in 12 hours(or 1 per hour). fragmentation warhead missiles(18 per 24 hours); plasma missiles; (6 per 28 hours), basic scientific drones; 12 in 24 hours, specialized scientific probes may take 2-5 times longer depending on the sensor fit.

Auxiliary Craft:
4 Heavy Shuttles/Tenders
20 Fighters
10 Shuttles
Probe Complement:
40 Robotic Landers
60 Robotic Orbiters

Great ship Taalismn! I know I plan on getting those other ships posted soon. Just this weekend is for gaming.

taalismn wrote:Another valued feature of the Blaxxtars is their automated fabrication facility, which produces spare parts and repair materials from harvested spacial debris and refined asteroid ores.

Adios
KLM

I'm trying to serve up a smorgasbord of ship designs from a variety of sources, including AI ships and 'legacy' ships left from earlier periods of galactic history....Some will be munchkin, others way behind the times, others a combination of both...

And yes, having an onboard spare parts factory rocks....

I think the designs presented in this forum represent quite a variety of times. From ancient to modern. I plan on contributing more as time allows. I always enjoy reading your ships along with the others various vessels.

watch dis' space..and the UWW R&D.
I aint dead yet mutha@#$%^!

We'll leave a docking slip open, then...

I'll keep my eyes open for you DhAkael!

Ganuu “Suffa”-class Frigate

“For Sale---State of the Art Heavy Frigate. Engines and Frame in Excellent Condition. Advanced Communications and Spacious Crew Accommodations a Plus. Armor Slightly Worn, Weapons Systems Hardly Used. Will Take Best Offer. Butler and Servent Girls Negotiable. Must Sell By 10/300070/42326462. Contact Browharff at SSSOM345234.”

Arguably, the large Suffa-class vessels are closer to cruisers in mass rating, but their actual offensive capabilities are more or less equivalent to a light destroyer’s. However, the vessels were commisioned as frigates, a classification that hqas stuck.
The five-system Dargoin of Ganuu commissioned the Suffa-class from the CCW-based Trada-Wzoclaw firm to build a new heavy frigate for its elite Pangen-Rhan command units. The ships had to constructed to exacting Dargoin specification, with particulary attention to interior fittings. The Dargoin ordered fifty ships, paying cash up front for early delivery.
Trada-Wzoclaw, which had done considerable work with Wolfpack Weapons on the Warshield Cruiser overhauls, delivered with a handsome design; sleek, streamlined, with a bullet-prow and rear weapons platform configuration, around an uprated Warshield-standard DW101 CG drive unit. They prototyped the class, got production approval, and delivered all fifty units on time, walking away with a considerable bonus for their work, though TW engineers were still scratching their heads over some of the specific features that were laid down in the specifications.
For several years afterward, the new warships were proudly paraded by the Dragoinate media, featuring prominently in news headlines and holo-news reports, leading parade formations and escorting dignitary vessels about the Dargoinate, being shown leading squadrons of destroyers and corvettes about the borders of claimed space, rushing to trouble spots in the domain, and often featuring as the backdrop or setting for news conferences by the Dargoinate’s spokesbeings. What WASN’T shown was any Suffa Frigates engaged in actual combat, and it wasn’t long before the mil-intel grapevine revealed why.
The fact of the matter is, the Suffas were little more than armored yachts for the privileged ‘warrior’-class of Ganuu, the Pangen, wealthy, landed aristocrats who had long since passed their role of traditional warriors to hired mercenary legions. Long on creature comforts and spacious quarters, the Suffas allowed the Pangen commanders to observe combat actions from a comfortable distance, without actually having to get involved in the fighting.
The Suffas were big on amenities, with the heavily-armored forward hull sporting extra-spacious quarters for the officers, additional quartering for frequent passenger-guests, and more ‘public’ crew-space than average for ships of the type. The large forward airlocks openned up into reception annexes more appropriate to a starliner than a ship of the line, and the main axial access way sported bubbler-stations and a water fountain(its sole concession to space-readiness being a plastic enclosure bubble in event of gravity-failure). Of particular note was the incorporation of a large forward secondary-bridge/lounge with a well-accoutered lounging bay directly adjacent to the captain’s quarters, wet bar, galley-island, and wrap-around, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling holo-screen arrays(supposedly for better ‘battlefield coordination’). While this room has bridge functions(the consoles tucked away inside designer cabinetry), the actual control of the ship is typically handled through a smaller and much more spartan facility well aft in the engineering section(where a secondary bridge would normally be). All the wasted mass and space came at the expense of combat capabilities; aside from a pair of slow-reloading LRM launchers and an array of relatively low-powered lasers, the Suffas are wholly without offensive punch. Even the fighter complement is shorted; the space given over to hangaring for the officers’ personal shuttles.
To their credit, Suffas have abundant point defense armaments(in the event something did come close enough to threaten the command ship), a good turn of speed, and better-than-average long range sensors(tied into the officers’ cabins’ elaborate holo-entertainment systems). The hull design, though uninspired, is sound and able to handle a fair amount of abuse, drive-stress, and battle damage without threatening structural integrity. Handling and operation is fairly simple, with heavy automation in the control system, allowing for smooth maneuvering and docking, even when the official bridge crew is distracted(revellers on the bridge, or by high spirits).
When a mercenary-led coup toppled the Dargoinate, the new Rhonate government confiscated the holdings of the Pangen(those that didn’t flee with all their wealth), including nearly a hundred Suffas....Though a few of the luxurious craft were held on to as spoils of the revolution, the experienced veteran mercenaries of the new government had little use for the ships, and began selling them off(stripped of their more valuable fittings, of course) to outside buyers. Sold on the open market for considerably less than original cost, the Suffa has ended up in the hands of various paramilitary and smaller military organizations looking for some low-cost firepower.
Trada-Wzoclaw has announced no plans to build any new Suffa-class vessels, nor even commented publicly on the ships; insider sources claim the company is frankly a little embarassed by the Dargoinate contract.
Type: DG-TW-DD03 Suffa
Class: Frigate
Crew: 250+ 1-600 passengers(WithOUT cramming)
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 6,000
Bridge 2,000
Secondary Bridge/Lounge 8,000
Laser Cannons(6) 500 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(2) 500 each
Short Range Missile Launchers(8 ) 100 each
Mini-Missile Launchers(4) 100 each
Point Defense Rail Guns(10) 200 each
Point Defense Lasers(24) 100 each
Hangar Bay 800
Variable Forcefields 1,500 per side, 9,000 total
Height: 200 ft
Width: 200 ft
Length: 900 ft
Weight: 25,000 tons
Cargo: 9,200 tons
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 50 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 7.5
(Kitsune Values: % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.75% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 500 million credits(typically sells for a quarter of the price on the Black Market)
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus;

*Long Range Sensors---The Suffas’ sensors have been tweaked for 20% greater range than standard CCW/TGE Frigate-mounted sensor systems.

Weapons Systems:
1)Masium Laser Cannons(6)---The main batteries of the Suffa class are these six medium-class laser weapons. Compared to a CCW Scimitar-class Frigate with its two lasers, the Suffa’s six would be an impressive weapons system, especially when fired simultaneously on one target, but the mounting of the weapons prevents all six from effectively bearing on the same target.
Range:8 miles in atmosphere, 16 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 16 miles in atmosphere, 16,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per cannon. Only two can fire on any one target at one time.
Rate of Fire: Each cannon can fire four times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2)Long Range Missile Launchers(2)---These are arguably the main long range weapon of the Suffa class, though their low rate of fire limits their effectiveness against heavy warships.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-5
Payload: 50 per launcher, 100 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)


3)Short Range Missile Launchers(8 )---The main weapon against fighters and missiles, these launchers were also used to mount impressive fireworks displays during peacetime.
Range:Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 160 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 100 per launcher, 800 total. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 24 missiles)

4)Mini-Missile Launchers(4)
Range:Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 100 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 200 mini-missiles per turret. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 15 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 96 missiles)

5)Point Defense Rail Guns(10)---Trada-Wzoclaw simply mounted Warshield-style G-cannons in defensive positions about the Suffas’ hulls, for good all-around defensive capabilities.
Range: 4,000 ft in atmosphere, 2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 10,000 rds(500 bursts) per cannom

6)Point Defense Lasers(24)----Suffas mount an impressive number of light laser cannons, which are used with great enthusiasm in the event an enemy fighter or missile strays too close to the ship. Typically, however, they’re used for putting on elaborate light shows during parade formation drills and ceremonies.
Range: 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

Auxiliary Craft:
4 Fighters
6 Shuttles

Variants:
Pre-Revolution, each Pangan clan outfitted and decorated the interior of their Suffas differently, making it possible to distinguish which ship one was on, waking up after a long night of drunken revelry, from the styling of the woodwork and interior decoration.
Post-Revolution, a number of concerns who have bought bargain-basement clearance Suffas have outfitted them in various ways, from Execorp’s mobile field office(available for rent to anyone needing an on-site administration facility) with a complete cubicle-ville replacing many of the guest-quarters, to the Denvadi Free Marines’ utilization of the extra partying space for troop transport billeting.
Reports have surfaced of several Pangan loyalist units that fled the revolution, that have refitted their Suffas with actual combat in mind, ripping out the passenger accommodations and replacing them with three 10-shot cruise missile launchers and a pair of heavy laser cannons(3d6x100 MD ) firing in the forward arc, as well as replacing the shuttle complement with a full squadron of fighters. These ships have reportedly been preying on Rhonate shipping and embassies.

taalismn wrote: Main Body 6,000
(...)
Secondary Bridge/Lounge 8,000

Adios
KLM

KLM wrote:

taalismn wrote: Main Body 6,000
(...)
Secondary Bridge/Lounge 8,000

Adios
KLM

Ya'know, I WAS going to correct that...
But in retrospect it is so much funnier and makes the ship even more of a white elephant and lemon....

Great stuff sometimes came from accidents

Adios
KLM

Rhilith Aegis-Magister-class Heavy Cruiser
“Vovec Moon----The Melec-Yorians have fortified their faciliy there with five squadron-equivalents of aerospace forces....hardly better than armed inter-orbit shuttles, but the Yorians have developed suitcase nukes, so expect their tactical ordnance to be capable of carrying them...The real danger is an estimated hundred thirty six strategic nulcear missiles, each carrying a six-RV bus of city-busters....The Yorians meant them for sweeping near orbit of SDI platforms and comm sats, but they’ve reconfigured the targetting software for anti-spacecraft work....These arrays here and here...just went up in the last six months and we’re certain they’re deep space taregtting radars...Now if the Melec launch these things against our transports, we figure they’d still have an eight hour transit time to hit our ships...plenty of time to evade or deploy countermeasures, but if for some reason we have to use the lunar orbits, the time to target will be a lot less....On the whole we’re rather not have Yorian nukes flying around ANYwhere, so we’re going to take them out as soon as possible...Or rather YOU’RE going to be taking them out...”
---Gear High Command Briefing to senior staff, RSF_Kanderan Dawn_ and RSF_Fordrin Castle_, Operation Fireman, Yorian Campaign.

Esteemed members of the United Worlds of Warlock because of their participation in the Yorian War, the people of Rhilith and their society the Gear, are accomplished shipwrights and naval engineers. The Aegis-Magister is one of their older designs, a veteran of the Yorian War, and a design, that despite its age, still commands considerable respect.
The Aegis-Magister is distinctive and graceful for a warship, with its spherical forward hull, and larger, gently flaring, cone-shaped main hull with its four long, sweeping, sensor fin-towers. The conventional space drive is large for a Three Galaxies ship of the class, but is reliable and capable of delivering power when needed. The FTL propulsion system is particularly advanced for a world of Rhilith’s status; easily equal to what more advanced cultures of the 3G have put out; a testimony to the Gear’s expertise in drive systems.
Internally, the ships are roomy and comfortable, making for ergonomically efficient operation, especially on long duration cruises. Multiple acccess ways and good design allow for easy access to ship’s systems from inside the ship, so repairs and maintenance are simplified. Avionics are up-to-date, and the Aegis-Magisters can boast of excellent long-range communications and sensor capabilities.
In terms of combat performance, the Aegis-Magister is heavily armed, though it does show its age in its preponderance of projectile weaponry....The A-Ms were commissioned when heavy energy weaponry was still in its infancy on Rhilith, and thus the ships rely on batteries of mass-drivers and misisle launchers for their punch. This has put the ships at a disadvantage against more modern vessels with predominately energy-based armaments, a liability only slightly ameloriated by upgrades to include more energy-type weapons as they become available. Armor is heavy for the class, but in keeping with the age of the ships, as, again, they were first laid down when forceshielding science was still being developed on Rhilith. Later improvements and updating have given the Aegis-Magisters a fair amount of protection.
The history of the Aegis-Magister class is long and respectable....The Aegis-Magisters were first introduced about 200 years ago, as cutting edge warships deployed to protect the first major Rhilithian galactic exploration efforts. The ships served to protect the Gear during numerous contacts with alien species, and often carried the diplomatic teams during the early contacts. Aegis-Magisters also spearheaded the Gear’s entry into the Yorian War, cruiser taskforces taking out orbital weapons, surveillance, and communications before the ground troops could be landed to secure assembly areas for refugees. Five years later, when Rhilith was beseiged by the ‘Yorian Alliance’, the Aegis-Magisters were deployed to the front lines to defend the system against both numerically superior forces and more advanced ships acquired by the Alliance from other sources. Though outnumbered nearly ten to one, had fighting actually broken out, the Aegis-Magisters would have acquited themselves well against Alliance ships.
The Aegis-Magister class has been upgraded several times over its long operational lifespan, with the latest major overhaul taking place just ten years ago, with the upgrading of point defense and shield technologies. Though an old design being gradually withdrawn from front-line service, the Aegis-Magister is expected to see continued main fleet service for at least another century before retirement. Rhilithian crews assigned to Aegis-Magisters regard their postings with pride, pointing to the proud service performance ‘Aggies’ have given over the two centuries the ships have been active.
The UWW Marines have acquired several Aegis-Magisters and had them converted/modified with techno-magic systems. The resulting Aegis-Majestrix-class is used as a ‘task cruiser’ to carry troubleshooting teams of Warlock Marines on sector patrols. The Aegis-Majestrixes are well-regarded by their Warlock crews, and the Gear has offered to manufacture more Aegis-Magister frames for them to convert, but the Warlocks have insisted on using older ships slated for retirement from Gear service, claiming that the ships’ ‘lived in’ state gives them a higher initial residual PPE, and makes them easier to magically modify.

Type: UWW-R-CG14 Aegis-Magister
Class: Heavy Cruiser
Crew: 180 +250 troops/passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 50,000
Bridge 10,000
Hangar Bays(2) 4,000 each
Sensor Tower Arrays(4) 1,200 each
Heavy Massdriver Cannon(9) 800 each
G-Cannon(12) 300 each
Heavy Lasers(4) 500 each
Medium Lasers(12) 200 each
Cruise Missile Launchers(2) 400 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(8 ) 200 each
Point Defense Rail Guns(12) 150 each
Variable Forcefields 1,200 per side, 7,200 total

Height:(hull) 300 ft
(Wingspan) 700 ft
Width: (hull) 300 ft
(Wingspan) 700 ft
Length: 1,000 ft
Weight: 300,000 tons
Cargo: 10,000 tons
Powerplant:Nuclear Fusion w/ 50 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight) Mach 7
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.7% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 2.8 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Long Range Sensors--- The sensors can pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 21 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 0.9 light years away.

*External Cargo/Docking Clamps(12)----The Aegis-Magister has a ring of docking clamps around its after third for externally carrying cargo pods and parasite craft(during the Yoriam War these hardpoints were used to carry refugee shuttles back to Rhilithian space)

Weapons Systems:
1) Heavy 420mm Massdriver Gravity Cannon(9)----The main heavy weaponry of the Aegis-Magister is a battery of nine turrreted massdriver cannons. Rather than fire a burst of projectiles, these cannon fire a half-ton shell at hyper velocity, with a warhead roughly three times the size of a conventional LRM(but a fraction of the range and speed). Because of their relative inaccuracy compared to self-guided missiles, massdrivers are typically fired in salvoes for maximum area of effect(up to four cannons can be brought to bear on the same target) . Three types of shell are typically carried; a standard kinetic penetrator ‘slug’, a fragmenting area of effect ‘shotgun’ shell, and a heavy nucleonic warhead. However, other specialized shell types also exist, such as EMP munitions, mine dispensers, and, recently, Elemental Warheads. Massdriver cannons are typically used against heavy warships and for bombardment of fortified positions, such as space stations and asteroid/moon bases.
Range: 20 miles in atmosphere, 50 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 50 miles in atmosphere, 50,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Kinetic Penetrator) 3d6x100 MD to 15 ft radius
(Multi-Munition Fragmentor) 3d6x10 MD to 300 ft radius
(Heavy Plasma) 2d6x100 MD to 150 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: 80 shells per cannon. Additional shells may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(2 shells per ton of cargo)

2) G-Cannon(12)---These are more conventional rapid-fire ‘burst’ style accelerator cannons used to keep off other vessels.
Range: 8 miles in atmosphere, 16 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 16 miles in atmosphere, 16,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 300 bursts per cannon

3) Heavy Lasers(4)----Backing the main massdrivers are four heavy long range laser cannons.
Range: 15 miles in atmosphere, 80 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 80 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x1000 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: 2 shots per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Medium Lasers(12)---Several arrays of medium lasers provide heavy anti-spacecraft/anti-missile coverage.
Range:5 miles in atmosphere,10 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 10 miles in atmosphere, 10,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per single barrel, 2d4x100 MD for two cannons firing simultaneously(counts as one attack).
Rate of Fire:Four shots per melee
Payload:Effectively Unlimited

5) Cruise Missile Launchers(2)----While the massdrivers have the throw-weight, many naval engineers consider cruise missiles essential as the true heavy artillery of space warfare. Thus, as soon as the technology became available, the Gear removed four of the original LRM launchers and an obsolescent sensor array, and installed a Three-Galaxies-pattern cruise missile launcher system and magazines. The Aegis-Magister mounts two cruise missile launchers as backup to its main batteries.
Range:Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-12 each launcher
Payload: 36 each launcher, 72 total. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 6 missiles)

6) Long Range Missile Launchers(8 )---Because cruise missiles don’t come cheap, the Rhilith have mounted several batteries of LRM launchers for long ranger interdiction and bombardment work, along with generous ammunition supplies for each.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 60 missiles each launcher, 480 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

7) Point Defense Rail Guns(12)
Range: 3 miles in atmosphere, 6 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 500 bursts per gun before reloading

Auxiliary Craft:
20 Aerospace Fighters
10 Shuttlecraft

Variants:
Several older Aegis-Magisters have been sold off over the years to private concerns, most stripped of their armaments and converted to civilian purposes.
Five Aegis-Magisters have been refitted to test a predominately energy-based weapons configuration, replacing the massdriver cannons with a mix of heavy laser and particle beam cannons.
The major operational variant of the Aegis-Magister is the Aegis-Majestrix, the UWW Warlock Marines’ modified version. The ships mount Rift Jump Drives, PPE Generators, two Death Cloud Projectors, and additional protection in the form of Impervious to Energy a backup magical forcefield(2,000 MDC, 3 times per 24 hours), additional magic sensors(see Aura, See Invisible, Sense Magic, and Sense Rifts)and four of the heavy massdrivers have been replaced with heavy particle beam cannons(3d6x100 MD per blast) . The missile systems have also been modified to fire TW missiles, such as Anti-Magic Missiles. Techno-Smithies with the Aegis-Majestixes have also been experimenting with using the long range missile launchers and massdriver cannons as ‘buses’ to deliver multi-warhead loads of Anti-Tech Mini-Missiles to target zones.

KLM wrote:Great stuff sometimes came from accidents

Adios
KLM

"We lost the battle, but at least we still have the waterbed!"

Sometimes I ponder about energy, kinetic and (guided) missile
weapons, and their roles in the 3 Galaxies.

Missiles are providing long range firepower, but they are
subject to countermeasures (in canon this usually
means interception by fighters, missiles and point defense).

Energy weapons are the main medium to short range weaponry,
(0-200 km), never run out of ammo (usefull against a star hive)
but they are still considered the primary weaponry.

Projectile weapons are limited in range (which makes sense,
3G "standard" spaceships are able to avoid slugs), but within that
range, they are excellent bang for the buck.
Icing the cake is the fact, that UWW ships, Cosmo Knights, Sploogie
ships and probably a whole bunch of other threats are immune
to energy weaponry - so while kinetic slugthorwers seem to be
primitive, they probably will be around.

Adios
KLM

That is a great looking ship Taalismn! Thank you for sharing them!

KLM wrote:Projectile weapons are limited in range (which makes sense,
3G "standard" spaceships are able to avoid slugs), but within that
range, they are excellent bang for the buck.
Icing the cake is the fact, that UWW ships, Cosmo Knights, Sploogie
ships and probably a whole bunch of other threats are immune
to energy weaponry - so while kinetic slugthorwers seem to be
primitive, they probably will be around.

Adios
KLM

PLus the ammunition can be customized(often with missile warhead technology)...though with manuevering thrusters and sensor packages, the differences between a 'smart bullet' and a missile get pretty thin...

Aramanthus wrote:That is a great looking ship Taalismn! Thank you for sharing them!

Thanks...I'm trying to incorporate older/differing technologies in more ships that I do...

Makes a lot of sense considering the size of Phase world alone!

taalismn wrote:

KLM wrote:Projectile weapons are limited in range (which makes sense,
3G "standard" spaceships are able to avoid slugs), but within that
range, they are excellent bang for the buck.
Icing the cake is the fact, that UWW ships, Cosmo Knights, Sploogie
ships and probably a whole bunch of other threats are immune
to energy weaponry - so while kinetic slugthorwers seem to be
primitive, they probably will be around.

Adios
KLM

PLus the ammunition can be customized(often with missile warhead technology)...though with manuevering thrusters and sensor packages, the differences between a 'smart bullet' and a missile get pretty thin...

Well, maybe, especially with large caliber mass drivers (thought
not neccessarily feasible "economically", logistically or even
tactically to exchange bigger missile engines to a large gun).

However, for most "canon" GR guns, I subscribe the opinion
of the Atomic Rocket page (often quoted by Glitterboy2098),
like:

Rick Robinson's First Law of Space Combat states that "An object impacting at 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT."

And that is about 9 Mach, in the conventional Earth-atmospheric
Mach number... (Maybe about 3M in the Robotech M number).
...which is probably far less, that we expect from GR guns.

Adios
KLM

But you have to think that a grav cannon that big would be very intimidating.

Especially if you're at a range where you can't effectively dodge it...

LOL Poor little ship got swatted by our fly swatter!

Considering one of the kinetic kill device designs tested and.or under consideration open up like giant nets or fans....that's not too far off the mark....

That is very true! Now too bad we can't have the procedes from that idea!

taalismn wrote:Considering one of the kinetic kill device designs tested and.or under consideration open up like giant nets or fans....that's not too far off the mark....

Lol... The last, untraslated part of the GRG article deals with
such projectiles
------------------------------

However, for very large, non-powered projectiles (ie: bullets)
I would use "dive-bomber" (fighter) ships... I mean, what is
the possible target of such a projectile? Some stationary
object, like a planet or space station...

So, if you want to throw a 100 ton rock on it, you can either
built a giant mass driver, then a BIG ship around it OR strap
it under a heavy fighter or frigate, give it the same trajectory,
eject, and watch the fireworks.

Of course I can see people to build the first one, because
sometimes seeing that ship with your MkI eyeballs in broad
daylight from the surface surely makes you think...

Adios
KLM

Human Alliance Beagle-class Exploration Cruiser
“Sounded like a good idea at the time...Hit one of those old-timer ramscoop ships that got converted into luxury liners....Sure, we figured, those ships are slow, not packing a lot of armor, and anyone willing to pay to fly on those relics has gotta be rich, so plenty of ransom potential there, or at least quick shakedown profit. We’d have three ships...big for an operation, but it would give us plenty of leeway and security in case something went wrong...
Zhatz, but did it ever! As soon as we tried to cuddle up close to the rammer and take out its drives, but the captain swings his ship in a fast end over end on us and lit up his ramscoop...We knew our shields would protect us from the hydrogen-gathering field, but what we didn’t figure was how much havoc it would wreak with our electronics! We went blind for a good three minutes...long enough for the torchdrive to totally irradiate our number two ship...Damn, but those old fusion drives spit hard radiation! Easy to see why they ban them nowadays from use in close orbits! Well, by the time our sensors cleared, we’d lost weapons lock, and had to reacquire...Only by now they’d popped up a few turrets of their own, and brushed aside our missiles.
That didn’t stop us from getting close and doing a hard-docking and boarding the thing...We figured we’d be under their guns, rush in, grab a few hostages, and they’d have to comply...and we were feeling good and mad at that point...
Okay, we weren’t expecting the guy in that first cabin we kicked open to start throwing lightning bolts...or come running out after us stark naked because we’d interrupted his fling with that stewardess chippee in the cabin with him....And he tore apart half our boarding party!! Then the rest of those nuts start popping out screaming ‘Zeus Amighty!’, and hitting us from behind!!!...Aren’t religious group tours SUPPOSED to register on the passenger manifest?! We checked, and we didn’t see anything like that! Pluddin’ A, but those people are lunatics! With those lightning-bolt shaped daggers! I though ‘no concealed weapons’ on pleasure cruises! All that bellyachin’ about spaceliner security, and you can’t stop people from carrying two-foot long stickers like those?! Hypocites.....
And wouldja know it, one of lightning-guy’s shots gets lucky and fuses the airlocks closed! And the captain-curse him!-apparently decides that stuffing a few work-remotes up our ship’s engine pipes is a hot idea...then prying the ship off the hull and tossing it into space!
Just dumb luck they pitched it into the way of our third ship...Come on, nobody’s THAT good....hard enough that the cowards decided a little collision damage wasn’t worth sticking by us, so they turned tail and ran.
Of course, I only found that out later...somebody freaking threw a table at me at about Mach One as I was retreating across the reception area....Exo-armor or not, that table HURT!-and put me into a bulkhead hard enough to break my pelvis....Lights out....
So here I am, telling you of how the Bold and Dangerous Regorian Action Committee---hey, wasn’t my idea to name the gang!---got our dumpends handed to us on an after-dinner cordial tray, trying to hijack a torchship from yestercentury...Hey, quit laughing! I though you were a SERIOUS journalist! Com’on, gimme a break....and could you ask the guards to turn down the artifgrav in here when you leave? Even with the fast-reg, my ribs are tinglin’...Not supposed to kick a guy when he’s down!”
-----Excerpt, Prison Cell Interview Following the Attempted Hijacking of Human Alliance Starliner Olympia(Network Omni News Archives)

The Beagle-class Exploration Cruisers date back to the beginnings of the Human Alliance exploration of the Three Galaxies, when FTL propulsion technology was still in its infancy, but the urge to go forth and explore/conquer outweighed the risks of the new and largely unproven technologies.
The Beagle-class is a second-generation ramscoop fusion torchship, fitted with a first-generation CG-drive system. Like most ships of its age, the Beagle-class is large and overbuilt, designed to handle all manner of strain and long-duration use and abuse.
The Beagle is said to resemble an elongated whale or a a crude jet-propelled airbreathing aircraft, with its long tubular design, gaping ramscoop at the prow, streamlined fuselage wrapped around the central torchdrive shaft, flaring wing-radiators, and attached equipment modules and pods. The Beagle was designed when CG-drive FTL propulsion was introduced in full production to Human ships, but all of its vagaries and potential hazards were not fully understood. While the Beagles would travel at FTL speeds, in the event the drive failed for whatever reason, the ship could make it back to safe ports travelling by considerably slower relativistic Bussard Ramscoop propulsion. The ship is wrapped around the main hydrogen fuel funneling shaft, radiation shielding and Busssard magnetic field technology having advanced to the point where this could be safely done. Large wing-like radiator panels dissipate excess heat from life-systems and the drives, while also providing a platform for auxiliary solar power cells. Cargo is carried both internally and externally(in standardized modules), in the latter case providing additional protection to the ship’s life systems.
Beagles retain a dual-propulsion system; the ships carry a conventional CG-drive system, but also retain the orginal ramscoop drive in operable condition. The small, early-model CG drive is capable of higher accelerations than the ramscoop, but top speed plateaus sooner than that of the ramscoop. Most captains use the CG-drive for safe in-system maneuvering and intersteallar gulf(where hydrogen density is low) drive, while openning up the ramscoop in open space where the chances of encountering other spacecraft are nil.
Beagles enjoy the advantage of being designed at a time when speeds were slow, but drive and construction technology were relatively inexpenseive; without the need tp count every gram of mass, but saddled with the necessity of crew comfort on low flights, the Beagles and their kin enjoy spacious crew accommodations, extensive recreation and ‘public’ space, and excellent support systems, particularly long-endurance life support and large medical facilities(all these made the ships attractive to private sector starliner conversions later on). The ships incorporated planar CG-artificial gravity generation, replacing the rotating centrifuges of earlier technologies.
The Beagles carry a veritable flotilla of small craft; cutters, workpods, and shuttlecraft. Two heavy cutters(essentially long range armed shuttles) are housed in a small hangar bay in the forward hull, while a larger amidships bay holds the rest of the ship’s stable of cargo and personnel shuttles, lighters, and maintenance sleds. Particularly interesting is the incorporation of four to eight ‘agrolanders’---modified agricultural/hydroponic domes that are attached externally to the ship. Normally, these domes supplement the interior life support systems with additional air/water cleansing and food, but the domes can be detached to act as lifeboats in an emergency, or can be used to support surface colonies/outposts with agricultural capability.
Because Humanity was already aware by that time that the Three Galaxies were both inhabited by other lifeforms, and wasn’t a friendly place, the Beagles were fitted with armaments, mostly early model lasers and missile launcher systems. The Beagles also mounted modest armor, and early versions of CG-derived forefield sheilding. Though rarely called upon to do so, the Beagles could be used as warships in a pinch, and could be modified to carry missile- and fighter-bay modules in place of cargo poddage. The Human Alliance did on occasion have to deploy the exploration Beagles to protect colonies and outposts, deal with pirates, and defend its vulnerable borders from hostile aliens.
As the reliability and size of CG drive technologies improved, the Beagle and her kin fell out of favor with the expanding Human Alliance, but rather than withdraw and scrap the ships, the Beagles were sold off to various commercial concerns. Originally front-line government exploration craft, the ships successively saw service as colonial support vessels, general transports, and spaceliners(when nostaglia for the olden days of space travel made the old Beagles big draws for excursion cruises).
Today, nearly thirty of the original hundred or so Beagles still travel the spacelanes, thanks to various preservation efforts and bloodyminded persistance in keeping the old ships running. Though very dated, the Beagle class is also very well constructed, and even with modern upgrades to propulsion and avionics(including modern FTL communications), there are very few things that can go catastrophically wrong with the vessels. By modern standards, even with upgrades such as faster drives and variabe shields, Beagles are slow and unwieldy, with a high operating overhead for those more familiar with modern systems. However, the ships still command considerable respect and attention when they come into port; their captains and crews are held in the same regard as Tall Ship or Riverboat crews might be regarded on 20th-century Earth.
About two hundred years back, a Dwarven corporation in the United Worlds of Warlock, WodenForge Aerospace, was so smitten with the design that they began producing their own version of the Beagle, adding another hundred of so vessels to the fleet. These vessels are rather more accommodating of modern upgrades(most sport more modern weaponry, such as Scimitar-pattern point defense turrets), but are otherwise identical in configuration to the original ships(though crews of the ‘Snoopy Fleet’ are quick to dismiss any proclaimations that the newer ships are in any way equal or better than the originals).

Type: HASSA-C-106 Beagle
Class: General Purpose Transport Cruiser
Crew: 180+800 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 90,000
Bridge 8,000
Forward Hangar Bay 800
Main Hangar Bay 3,000
AgroDomes(4-8) 3,000 each
Drive Section 25,000
Variable Forcefields(Later Mod) 1,500 per side, 9,000 total
Height: 800 ft
Width: 2,000 ft
Length: 5,000 ft
Weight: 650,000 tons
Cargo: 200,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Fusion Nuclear w/ average energy lifespan of 60 years between drive overhauls.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight)(Ramscoop) Mach 4
(Kitsune Values: 50 % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.4% of light speed per melee)

(CG Drive) Mach 5
(Kitsune Values: 20% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.5% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 2 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 3 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Internal Hydroponics Bays----In addition to any AgroLanders embarked, the Beagle sports several hydroponics bays, Unlike those in the AgroLanders, the internal bays use modified algae and other tailored low-bulk, high-output plant forms, housed in long tube-treays, to produce oxygen, purify air and water, and produce basic nutrient substances(derisively called ‘grass-burgers’, ‘slime-fu’, and ‘mucksteak’ by crews). As long as the bays receive sunlight, and are regularly churned to remove dead matter, the bays will keep pumping away, cleaning and renewing shipboard air.

*Bussard Ramscoop---Mounted like jet air intakes in the prow of the main body, are magnetic intakes for taking in interstellar hydrogen deflected safely into them by the navigational deflectors. In this way, on long range missions, the ship can replenish its hydrogen fuel supplies, ‘grazing’ off of hydrogen rich patches of space, cometary gas tails, or the upper atmosphere of gas giants, and replenish its fuel supply. This gives the ships near-infinite range, as long as they can find hydrogen-rich regions of space to refuel.
The Beagles use a large-scale system that casts a magnetic ‘net’ roughly 100 miles long and 80 miles wide in front of the ship...Vessels passing through this region while the ramscoop is active may suffer adverse effects from the strong magnetic field; unshielded electronics are particularly vulnerable at ranges of 50 miles are less, roughly equal to a Scrambler(radio communications are reduced to static, missile guidance is thrown off-35%, and there’s a 40% chance of knocking electronics out of order), Gaseous beings(including vampires in vapor form) will find themselves being drawn in the direction of the conical ‘maw’---Roll under the being’s P.E. in gaseous form, -2 for every 10 miles of proximity to the ramscoop’s intake(cumulative) to avoid being drawn in(and for a vampire, being drawn into the artificial plasma sun of a ramscoop IS instant death).

Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)---The main long range weapon of the Beagles was LRMs. Two launchers are mounted forward and two aft. The launchers are also capable of deploying drones and satellite surveillance pods.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 120 missiles each launcher, 480 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

2) Long Range Lasers(4)---These were, at the time of their introduction, the state of the art in weapons design. These weapons had range comparable to modern system, but had a much lighter punch at the greater ranges.
Range: 20 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 20,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Three shots per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3)Point Defense Lasers(10)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 200 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Point Defense Chain-Guns(6)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 300 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 250 bursts per chain-gun; reloading an ammunition drop from the cargo holds tales 20 minutes

Auxiliary Craft:
2 Cutters(comparable to heavy fighters)
12 Shuttles
10 Workpods
4-8 AgroLanders(850 ft diameter, 400 ft height, 50,000 tons, 3,000 MDC each, sublight speed of , standard crew of 5, and is capable of landing/taking off in microgravity, or one-shot atmospheric re-entry/landing).

Human Alliance Beagle-class Exploration Cruiser
“Sounded like a good idea at the time...Hit one of those old-timer ramscoop ships that got converted into luxury liners....Sure, we figured, those ships are slow, not packing a lot of armor, and anyone willing to pay to fly on those relics has gotta be rich, so plenty of ransom potential there, or at least quick shakedown profit. We’d have three ships...big for an operation, but it would give us plenty of leeway and security in case something went wrong...
Zhatz, but did it ever! As soon as we tried to cuddle up close to the rammer and take out its drives, but the captain swings his ship in a fast end over end on us and lit up his ramscoop...We knew our shields would protect us from the hydrogen-gathering field, but what we didn’t figure was how much havoc it would wreak with our electronics! We went blind for a good three minutes...long enough for the torchdrive to totally irradiate our number two ship...Damn, but those old fusion drives spit hard radiation! Easy to see why they ban them nowadays from use in close orbits! Well, by the time our sensors cleared, we’d lost weapons lock, and had to reacquire...Only by now they’d popped up a few turrets of their own, and brushed aside our missiles.
That didn’t stop us from getting close and doing a hard-docking and boarding the thing...We figured we’d be under their guns, rush in, grab a few hostages, and they’d have to comply...and we were feeling good and mad at that point...
Okay, we weren’t expecting the guy in that first cabin we kicked open to start throwing lightning bolts...or come running out after us stark naked because we’d interrupted his fling with that stewardess chippee in the cabin with him....And he tore apart half our boarding party!! Then the rest of those nuts start popping out screaming ‘Zeus Amighty!’, and hitting us from behind!!!...Aren’t religious group tours SUPPOSED to register on the passenger manifest?! We checked, and we didn’t see anything like that! Pluddin’ A, but those people are lunatics! With those lightning-bolt shaped daggers! I though ‘no concealed weapons’ on pleasure cruises! All that bellyachin’ about spaceliner security, and you can’t stop people from carrying two-foot long stickers like those?! Hypocites.....
And wouldja know it, one of lightning-guy’s shots gets lucky and fuses the airlocks closed! And the captain-curse him!-apparently decides that stuffing a few work-remotes up our ship’s engine pipes is a hot idea...then prying the ship off the hull and tossing it into space!
Just dumb luck they pitched it into the way of our third ship...Come on, nobody’s THAT good....hard enough that the cowards decided a little collision damage wasn’t worth sticking by us, so they turned tail and ran.
Of course, I only found that out later...somebody freaking threw a table at me at about Mach One as I was retreating across the reception area....Exo-armor or not, that table HURT!-and put me into a bulkhead hard enough to break my pelvis....Lights out....
So here I am, telling you of how the Bold and Dangerous Regorian Action Committee---hey, wasn’t my idea to name the gang!---got our dumpends handed to us on an after-dinner cordial tray, trying to hijack a torchship from yestercentury...Hey, quit laughing! I though you were a SERIOUS journalist! Com’on, gimme a break....and could you ask the guards to turn down the artifgrav in here when you leave? Even with the fast-reg, my ribs are tinglin’...Not supposed to kick a guy when he’s down!”
-----Excerpt, Prison Cell Interview Following the Attempted Hijacking of Human Alliance Starliner Olympia(Network Omni News Archives)

The Beagle-class Exploration Cruisers date back to the beginnings of the Human Alliance exploration of the Three Galaxies, when FTL propulsion technology was still in its infancy, but the urge to go forth and explore/conquer outweighed the risks of the new and largely unproven technologies.
The Beagle-class is a second-generation ramscoop fusion torchship, fitted with a first-generation CG-drive system. Like most ships of its age, the Beagle-class is large and overbuilt, designed to handle all manner of strain and long-duration use and abuse.
The Beagle is said to resemble an elongated whale or a a crude jet-propelled airbreathing aircraft, with its long tubular design, gaping ramscoop at the prow, streamlined fuselage wrapped around the central torchdrive shaft, flaring wing-radiators, and attached equipment modules and pods. The Beagle was designed when CG-drive FTL propulsion was introduced in full production to Human ships, but all of its vagaries and potential hazards were not fully understood. While the Beagles would travel at FTL speeds, in the event the drive failed for whatever reason, the ship could make it back to safe ports travelling by considerably slower relativistic Bussard Ramscoop propulsion. The ship is wrapped around the main hydrogen fuel funneling shaft, radiation shielding and Busssard magnetic field technology having advanced to the point where this could be safely done. Large wing-like radiator panels dissipate excess heat from life-systems and the drives, while also providing a platform for auxiliary solar power cells. Cargo is carried both internally and externally(in standardized modules), in the latter case providing additional protection to the ship’s life systems.
Beagles retain a dual-propulsion system; the ships carry a conventional CG-drive system, but also retain the orginal ramscoop drive in operable condition. The small, early-model CG drive is capable of higher accelerations than the ramscoop, but top speed plateaus sooner than that of the ramscoop. Most captains use the CG-drive for safe in-system maneuvering and intersteallar gulf(where hydrogen density is low) drive, while openning up the ramscoop in open space where the chances of encountering other spacecraft are nil.
Beagles enjoy the advantage of being designed at a time when speeds were slow, but drive and construction technology were relatively inexpenseive; without the need tp count every gram of mass, but saddled with the necessity of crew comfort on low flights, the Beagles and their kin enjoy spacious crew accommodations, extensive recreation and ‘public’ space, and excellent support systems, particularly long-endurance life support and large medical facilities(all these made the ships attractive to private sector starliner conversions later on). The ships incorporated planar CG-artificial gravity generation, replacing the rotating centrifuges of earlier technologies.
The Beagles carry a veritable flotilla of small craft; cutters, workpods, and shuttlecraft. Two heavy cutters(essentially long range armed shuttles) are housed in a small hangar bay in the forward hull, while a larger amidships bay holds the rest of the ship’s stable of cargo and personnel shuttles, lighters, and maintenance sleds. Particularly interesting is the incorporation of four to eight ‘agrolanders’---modified agricultural/hydroponic domes that are attached externally to the ship. Normally, these domes supplement the interior life support systems with additional air/water cleansing and food, but the domes can be detached to act as lifeboats in an emergency, or can be used to support surface colonies/outposts with agricultural capability.
Because Humanity was already aware by that time that the Three Galaxies were both inhabited by other lifeforms, and wasn’t a friendly place, the Beagles were fitted with armaments, mostly early model lasers and missile launcher systems. The Beagles also mounted modest armor, and early versions of CG-derived forefield sheilding. Though rarely called upon to do so, the Beagles could be used as warships in a pinch, and could be modified to carry missile- and fighter-bay modules in place of cargo poddage. The Human Alliance did on occasion have to deploy the exploration Beagles to protect colonies and outposts, deal with pirates, and defend its vulnerable borders from hostile aliens.
As the reliability and size of CG drive technologies improved, the Beagle and her kin fell out of favor with the expanding Human Alliance, but rather than withdraw and scrap the ships, the Beagles were sold off to various commercial concerns. Originally front-line government exploration craft, the ships successively saw service as colonial support vessels, general transports, and spaceliners(when nostaglia for the olden days of space travel made the old Beagles big draws for excursion cruises).
Today, nearly thirty of the original hundred or so Beagles still travel the spacelanes, thanks to various preservation efforts and bloodyminded persistance in keeping the old ships running. Though very dated, the Beagle class is also very well constructed, and even with modern upgrades to propulsion and avionics(including modern FTL communications), there are very few things that can go catastrophically wrong with the vessels. By modern standards, even with upgrades such as faster drives and variabe shields, Beagles are slow and unwieldy, with a high operating overhead for those more familiar with modern systems. However, the ships still command considerable respect and attention when they come into port; their captains and crews are held in the same regard as Tall Ship or Riverboat crews might be regarded on 20th-century Earth.
About two hundred years back, a Dwarven corporation in the United Worlds of Warlock, WodenForge Aerospace, was so smitten with the design that they began producing their own version of the Beagle, adding another hundred of so vessels to the fleet. These vessels are rather more accommodating of modern upgrades(most sport more modern weaponry, such as Scimitar-pattern point defense turrets), but are otherwise identical in configuration to the original ships(though crews of the ‘Snoopy Fleet’ are quick to dismiss any proclaimations that the newer ships are in any way equal or better than the originals).

Type: HASSA-C-106 Beagle
Class: General Purpose Transport Cruiser
Crew: 180+800 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 90,000
Bridge 8,000
Forward Hangar Bay 800
Main Hangar Bay 3,000
AgroDomes(4-8) 3,000 each
Drive Section 25,000
Variable Forcefields(Later Mod) 1,500 per side, 9,000 total
Height: 800 ft
Width: 2,000 ft
Length: 5,000 ft
Weight: 650,000 tons
Cargo: 200,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Fusion Nuclear w/ average energy lifespan of 60 years between drive overhauls.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight)(Ramscoop) Mach 4
(Kitsune Values: 50 % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.4% of light speed per melee)

(CG Drive) Mach 5
(Kitsune Values: 20% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.5% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 2 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 3 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Internal Hydroponics Bays----In addition to any AgroLanders embarked, the Beagle sports several hydroponics bays, Unlike those in the AgroLanders, the internal bays use modified algae and other tailored low-bulk, high-output plant forms, housed in long tube-treays, to produce oxygen, purify air and water, and produce basic nutrient substances(derisively called ‘grass-burgers’, ‘slime-fu’, and ‘mucksteak’ by crews). As long as the bays receive sunlight, and are regularly churned to remove dead matter, the bays will keep pumping away, cleaning and renewing shipboard air.

*Bussard Ramscoop---Mounted like jet air intakes in the prow of the main body, are magnetic intakes for taking in interstellar hydrogen deflected safely into them by the navigational deflectors. In this way, on long range missions, the ship can replenish its hydrogen fuel supplies, ‘grazing’ off of hydrogen rich patches of space, cometary gas tails, or the upper atmosphere of gas giants, and replenish its fuel supply. This gives the ships near-infinite range, as long as they can find hydrogen-rich regions of space to refuel.
The Beagles use a large-scale system that casts a magnetic ‘net’ roughly 100 miles long and 80 miles wide in front of the ship...Vessels passing through this region while the ramscoop is active may suffer adverse effects from the strong magnetic field; unshielded electronics are particularly vulnerable at ranges of 50 miles are less, roughly equal to a Scrambler(radio communications are reduced to static, missile guidance is thrown off-35%, and there’s a 40% chance of knocking electronics out of order), Gaseous beings(including vampires in vapor form) will find themselves being drawn in the direction of the conical ‘maw’---Roll under the being’s P.E. in gaseous form, -2 for every 10 miles of proximity to the ramscoop’s intake(cumulative) to avoid being drawn in(and for a vampire, being drawn into the artificial plasma sun of a ramscoop IS instant death).

Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)---The main long range weapon of the Beagles was LRMs. Two launchers are mounted forward and two aft. The launchers are also capable of deploying drones and satellite surveillance pods.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 120 missiles each launcher, 480 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

2) Long Range Lasers(4)---These were, at the time of their introduction, the state of the art in weapons design. These weapons had range comparable to modern system, but had a much lighter punch at the greater ranges.
Range: 20 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 20,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Three shots per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3)Point Defense Lasers(10)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 200 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Point Defense Chain-Guns(6)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 300 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 250 bursts per chain-gun; reloading an ammunition drum from the cargo holds takes 20 minutes

Auxiliary Craft:
2 Cutters(comparable to heavy fighters)
12 Shuttles
10 Workpods
4-8 AgroLanders(850 ft diameter, 400 ft height, 50,000 tons, 3,000 MDC each, sublight speed of , standard crew of 5, and is capable of landing/taking off in microgravity, or one-shot atmospheric re-entry/landing).

Human Alliance Beagle-class Exploration Cruiser
“Sounded like a good idea at the time...Hit one of those old-timer ramscoop ships that got converted into luxury liners....Sure, we figured, those ships are slow, not packing a lot of armor, and anyone willing to pay to fly on those relics has gotta be rich, so plenty of ransom potential there, or at least quick shakedown profit. We’d have three ships...big for an operation, but it would give us plenty of leeway and security in case something went wrong...
Zhatz, but did it ever! As soon as we tried to cuddle up close to the rammer and take out its drives, but the captain swings his ship in a fast end over end on us and lit up his ramscoop...We knew our shields would protect us from the hydrogen-gathering field, but what we didn’t figure was how much havoc it would wreak with our electronics! We went blind for a good three minutes...long enough for the torchdrive to totally irradiate our number two ship...Damn, but those old fusion drives spit hard radiation! Easy to see why they ban them nowadays from use in close orbits! Well, by the time our sensors cleared, we’d lost weapons lock, and had to reacquire...Only by now they’d popped up a few turrets of their own, and brushed aside our missiles.
That didn’t stop us from getting close and doing a hard-docking and boarding the thing...We figured we’d be under their guns, rush in, grab a few hostages, and they’d have to comply...and we were feeling good and mad at that point...
Okay, we weren’t expecting the guy in that first cabin we kicked open to start throwing lightning bolts...or come running out after us stark naked because we’d interrupted his fling with that stewardess chippee in the cabin with him....And he tore apart half our boarding party!! Then the rest of those nuts start popping out screaming ‘Zeus Amighty!’, and hitting us from behind!!!...Aren’t religious group tours SUPPOSED to register on the passenger manifest?! We checked, and we didn’t see anything like that! Pluddin’ A, but those people are lunatics! With those lightning-bolt shaped daggers! I though ‘no concealed weapons’ on pleasure cruises! All that bellyachin’ about spaceliner security, and you can’t stop people from carrying two-foot long stickers like those?! Hypocites.....
And wouldja know it, one of lightning-guy’s shots gets lucky and fuses the airlocks closed! And the captain-curse him!-apparently decides that stuffing a few work-remotes up our ship’s engine pipes is a hot idea...then prying the ship off the hull and tossing it into space!
Just dumb luck they pitched it into the way of our third ship...Come on, nobody’s THAT good....hard enough that the cowards decided a little collision damage wasn’t worth sticking by us, so they turned tail and ran.
Of course, I only found that out later...somebody freaking threw a table at me at about Mach One as I was retreating across the reception area....Exo-armor or not, that table HURT!-and put me into a bulkhead hard enough to break my pelvis....Lights out....
So here I am, telling you of how the Bold and Dangerous Regorian Action Committee---hey, wasn’t my idea to name the gang!---got our dumpends handed to us on an after-dinner cordial tray, trying to hijack a torchship from yestercentury...Hey, quit laughing! I though you were a SERIOUS journalist! Com’on, gimme a break....and could you ask the guards to turn down the artifgrav in here when you leave? Even with the fast-reg, my ribs are tinglin’...Not supposed to kick a guy when he’s down!”
-----Excerpt, Prison Cell Interview Following the Attempted Hijacking of Human Alliance Starliner Olympia(Network Omni News Archives)

The Beagle-class Exploration Cruisers date back to the beginnings of the Human Alliance exploration of the Three Galaxies, when FTL propulsion technology was still in its infancy, but the urge to go forth and explore/conquer outweighed the risks of the new and largely unproven technologies.
The Beagle-class is a second-generation ramscoop fusion torchship, fitted with a first-generation CG-drive system. Like most ships of its age, the Beagle-class is large and overbuilt, designed to handle all manner of strain and long-duration use and abuse.
The Beagle is said to resemble an elongated whale or a a crude jet-propelled airbreathing aircraft, with its long tubular design, gaping ramscoop at the prow, streamlined fuselage wrapped around the central torchdrive shaft, flaring wing-radiators, and attached equipment modules and pods. The Beagle was designed when CG-drive FTL propulsion was introduced in full production to Human ships, but all of its vagaries and potential hazards were not fully understood. While the Beagles would travel at FTL speeds, in the event the drive failed for whatever reason, the ship could make it back to safe ports travelling by considerably slower relativistic Bussard Ramscoop propulsion. The ship is wrapped around the main hydrogen fuel funneling shaft, radiation shielding and Busssard magnetic field technology having advanced to the point where this could be safely done. Large wing-like radiator panels dissipate excess heat from life-systems and the drives, while also providing a platform for auxiliary solar power cells. Cargo is carried both internally and externally(in standardized modules), in the latter case providing additional protection to the ship’s life systems.
Beagles retain a dual-propulsion system; the ships carry a conventional CG-drive system, but also retain the orginal ramscoop drive in operable condition. The small, early-model CG drive is capable of higher accelerations than the ramscoop, but top speed plateaus sooner than that of the ramscoop. Most captains use the CG-drive for safe in-system maneuvering and intersteallar gulf(where hydrogen density is low) drive, while openning up the ramscoop in open space where the chances of encountering other spacecraft are nil.
Beagles enjoy the advantage of being designed at a time when speeds were slow, but drive and construction technology were relatively inexpenseive; without the need tp count every gram of mass, but saddled with the necessity of crew comfort on low flights, the Beagles and their kin enjoy spacious crew accommodations, extensive recreation and ‘public’ space, and excellent support systems, particularly long-endurance life support and large medical facilities(all these made the ships attractive to private sector starliner conversions later on). The ships incorporated planar CG-artificial gravity generation, replacing the rotating centrifuges of earlier technologies.
The Beagles carry a veritable flotilla of small craft; cutters, workpods, and shuttlecraft. Two heavy cutters(essentially long range armed shuttles) are housed in a small hangar bay in the forward hull, while a larger amidships bay holds the rest of the ship’s stable of cargo and personnel shuttles, lighters, and maintenance sleds. Particularly interesting is the incorporation of four to eight ‘agrolanders’---modified agricultural/hydroponic domes that are attached externally to the ship. Normally, these domes supplement the interior life support systems with additional air/water cleansing and food, but the domes can be detached to act as lifeboats in an emergency, or can be used to support surface colonies/outposts with agricultural capability.
Because Humanity was already aware by that time that the Three Galaxies were both inhabited by other lifeforms, and wasn’t a friendly place, the Beagles were fitted with armaments, mostly early model lasers and missile launcher systems. The Beagles also mounted modest armor, and early versions of CG-derived forefield sheilding. Though rarely called upon to do so, the Beagles could be used as warships in a pinch, and could be modified to carry missile- and fighter-bay modules in place of cargo poddage. The Human Alliance did on occasion have to deploy the exploration Beagles to protect colonies and outposts, deal with pirates, and defend its vulnerable borders from hostile aliens.
As the reliability and size of CG drive technologies improved, the Beagle and her kin fell out of favor with the expanding Human Alliance, but rather than withdraw and scrap the ships, the Beagles were sold off to various commercial concerns. Originally front-line government exploration craft, the ships successively saw service as colonial support vessels, general transports, and spaceliners(when nostaglia for the olden days of space travel made the old Beagles big draws for excursion cruises).
Today, nearly thirty of the original hundred or so Beagles still travel the spacelanes, thanks to various preservation efforts and bloodyminded persistance in keeping the old ships running. Though very dated, the Beagle class is also very well constructed, and even with modern upgrades to propulsion and avionics(including modern FTL communications), there are very few things that can go catastrophically wrong with the vessels. By modern standards, even with upgrades such as faster drives and variabe shields, Beagles are slow and unwieldy, with a high operating overhead for those more familiar with modern systems. However, the ships still command considerable respect and attention when they come into port; their captains and crews are held in the same regard as Tall Ship or Riverboat crews might be regarded on 20th-century Earth.
About two hundred years back, a Dwarven corporation in the United Worlds of Warlock, WodenForge Aerospace, was so smitten with the design that they began producing their own version of the Beagle, adding another hundred of so vessels to the fleet. These vessels are rather more accommodating of modern upgrades(most sport more modern weaponry, such as Scimitar-pattern point defense turrets), but are otherwise identical in configuration to the original ships(though crews of the ‘Snoopy Fleet’ are quick to dismiss any proclaimations that the newer ships are in any way equal or better than the originals).

Type: HASSA-C-106 Beagle
Class: General Purpose Transport Cruiser
Crew: 180+800 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 90,000
Bridge 8,000
Forward Hangar Bay 800
Main Hangar Bay 3,000
AgroDomes(4-8) 3,000 each
Drive Section 25,000
Variable Forcefields(Later Mod) 1,500 per side, 9,000 total
Height: 800 ft
Width: 2,000 ft
Length: 5,000 ft
Weight: 650,000 tons
Cargo: 200,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Fusion Nuclear w/ average energy lifespan of 60 years between drive overhauls.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Not Possible
(Sublight)(Ramscoop) Mach 4
(Kitsune Values: 50 % of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.4% of light speed per melee)

(CG Drive) Mach 5
(Kitsune Values: 20% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.5% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 2 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not Possible
Market Cost: 3 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Internal Hydroponics Bays----In addition to any AgroLanders embarked, the Beagle sports several hydroponics bays, Unlike those in the AgroLanders, the internal bays use modified algae and other tailored low-bulk, high-output plant forms, housed in long tube-treays, to produce oxygen, purify air and water, and produce basic nutrient substances(derisively called ‘grass-burgers’, ‘slime-fu’, and ‘mucksteak’ by crews). As long as the bays receive sunlight, and are regularly churned to remove dead matter, the bays will keep pumping away, cleaning and renewing shipboard air.

*Bussard Ramscoop---Mounted like jet air intakes in the prow of the main body, are magnetic intakes for taking in interstellar hydrogen deflected safely into them by the navigational deflectors. In this way, on long range missions, the ship can replenish its hydrogen fuel supplies, ‘grazing’ off of hydrogen rich patches of space, cometary gas tails, or the upper atmosphere of gas giants, and replenish its fuel supply. This gives the ships near-infinite range, as long as they can find hydrogen-rich regions of space to refuel.
The Beagles use a large-scale system that casts a magnetic ‘net’ roughly 100 miles long and 80 miles wide in front of the ship...Vessels passing through this region while the ramscoop is active may suffer adverse effects from the strong magnetic field; unshielded electronics are particularly vulnerable at ranges of 50 miles are less, roughly equal to a Scrambler(radio communications are reduced to static, missile guidance is thrown off-35%, and there’s a 40% chance of knocking electronics out of order), Gaseous beings(including vampires in vapor form) will find themselves being drawn in the direction of the conical ‘maw’---Roll under the being’s P.E. in gaseous form, -2 for every 10 miles of proximity to the ramscoop’s intake(cumulative) to avoid being drawn in(and for a vampire, being drawn into the artificial plasma sun of a ramscoop IS instant death).

Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)---The main long range weapon of the Beagles was LRMs. Two launchers are mounted forward and two aft. The launchers are also capable of deploying drones and satellite surveillance pods.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 120 missiles each launcher, 480 total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

2) Long Range Lasers(4)---These were, at the time of their introduction, the state of the art in weapons design. These weapons had range comparable to modern system, but had a much lighter punch at the greater ranges.
Range: 20 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 20,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Three shots per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3)Point Defense Lasers(10)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 200 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Point Defense Chain-Guns(6)---Spaced around the hull for maximum coverage against missiles and fighters.
Range: 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 300 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 250 bursts per chain-gun; reloading an ammunition drum from the cargo holds takes 20 minutes

Auxiliary Craft:
2 Cutters(comparable to heavy fighters)
12 Shuttles
10 Workpods
4-8 AgroLanders(850 ft diameter, 400 ft height, 50,000 tons, 3,000 MDC each, sublight speed of Mach 1.2 , standard crew of 5, and is capable of landing/taking off in microgravity, or one-shot atmospheric re-entry/landing).

Nice, thought IMO shields protect against the ramscoop's EM field
too... I mean as long as the shields are holding, the electronics
is safe.
But who knows, maybe it was a negate machanics spell casted
by that lightning-bolt guy...

Adios
KLM

That is a very cool old design ship Taalismn! And it looks like the website glitched on too with that triple post. Thank you for sharing it with us!