Freelance Traveller - The Shipyard - Classic Traveller Designs

Covenant-class Consular Ship

This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of the downloadable PDF magazine.

Covenant-class Imperial Consular Ship   TL-15
2000 ton needle w/ scoops and fuel purifier
     (High Guard design)

Jump Drive (3)  Jump-3
Maneuver Drive (2)  2-G (Agility 2/Emer agility 2)
Power Plant (5)  (energy=2000)

Fuel = 680 tons (with refinery)
Cargo = 180 tons

Computer  = Model 6fib (CPU-15/ Storage-35)

Vehicles =    1 Herald Class Courier 
              4 FM7F-5 Sabrecat Fighters
              2 Grav Carriers

Weapons= 10 Pop-up Triple Turrets (5 SBS / 5 PMP)

Crew: 	(45 Staterooms)
    Command: Captain, XO, 2 Pilots, 2 Navigators, 
        Commo/Computer
    Engineering: Chief Engineer, 6 Ratings
    Flight: 8 Small Craft Pilots, 4 Crew Chiefs, 
        4 “Ground Crew”
    Services: 4 Stewards, 4 Midshipmen,
        Chief Medical Officer, 2 Medical Orderlies
    Gunnery: Chief Gunnery Officer (Gunners from
        Marine Contingent)
    Marines: Major, Captain, 2 Lieutenants,
        Master Gunnery Sergeant, 2 Sergeants,
        20 Marines (10 to be assigned to ship gunnery
        if needed)
    Diplomatic: Envoy, Secretary to Envoy, 2 Clerks,
        Protocol Officer (Naval Intelligence
        Attaché), Head of Security (Naval
        Intelligence Attaché)

Medical Facilities include 4 Autodocs (16 total patient capacity) and 2 Emergency Low Berths

The Covenant-class Consular Ship is built with diplomatic and first contact (after initial contact by the Scout Service and the diplomats enter the picture) missions in mind. The ships are used in time of peace as well as during war to negotiate treaties so they may seem a little heavily armed for a diplomatic ship. The turrets are hidden as pop-up weapons to give the outward appearance of peaceful intent when it applies, but the government has encountered in the past cultures that value an open display of strength in order to prove the ambassador’s position as negotiator. On two occasions it was necessary for the ship to defend itself when negotiations took a turn for the worse.

The ambassador has two staterooms for him/herself and has a staff including two attached members of Naval Intelligence whose duties will include gathering information from less conventional sources if possible during the diplomatic mission.

The procedure for entering a system on a typical diplomatic contact varies between peacetime and war, but basic SOP is to launch two of the Sabrecats as soon as the ship enters the system to act as pickets as the ship travels towards the world. The Herald courier is dispatched with the security team, Protocol Officer, and Head of Security to establish contact, set up security, and establish the protocols for the visit between the two cultures well before the consular ship arrives. The security team consists of one of the two squads of Marines assigned to the ship, plus a crew for the Grav Carrier and armored grav sled “limo” which will pick up the Imperial Envoy when the consular ship lands a couple of days later.