Freelance Traveller

designed by Peter Gray

Overview

To protect their long borders, the rulers of the Ziru Sirka relied heavily upon small 500 to 2000 ton patrol craft that could operate for long periods of time away from their bases. Piracy, raiding by subject races, and smuggling marked the decadent turn of the First Imperium, making this need all the more acute. Among the rimward provincial fleets, the TL-10 Gar Lukamdii corvette was the workhorse in commerce protection, customs enforcement and piracy suppression roles. The "Garfish" (as admiring Terran crews nicknamed her) only operated with naval units, and lacked the tainted reputation her gunship cousins contracted from the malfeasance of the Vilani bureaucrats that used these smaller ships for their own petty criminal and adventurist ends.

One of the last Ziru Sirka starships designed and constructed before the Terran contact, her operating parameters and equipment were dictated by the increasingly desperate condition of the empire. With the emperor and the core bureaucracy unable (or unwilling) to challenge the petty officialdom that were siphoning the empire's lifeforce, more and more independence appeared among ZS ship designers during these last centuries. Vilani governors in what are now the Solomani Rim and Old Expanses sectors commissioned the Gar Lukamdii to replace decrepit and increasingly hard to obtain TL-11 equipment manufactured in the First Imperium's core worlds, and she is something of a departure from the typical Vilani warship.

The "Flying Condom" and "Funeral Coffin" hull architectures typical of the Vilani are not evident, instead the Garfish has a sleek aerodynamic hull built along the lines of high performance atmospheric craft. The armor is mediocre even for a TL-10 design, but the barbette armament is a departure for a small Ziru Sirka gunship. The internal layout is more casual, with none of the usual obsessive attention to efficiency. Though suffering from the usual severe power shortfalls common to TL-10 craft, her massive cargo bay is easily converted over to a plethora of different tasks, and accepts a wide range of juryrigged equipment, from power booster plants and additional fuel refining, thanks to universal connectors and modular adaption. Garfish crews were often reflective of this new "toughing it out" mindset, obtaining a reputation for toughness and resourcefulness lacking among most provincial fleet units. Garfish captured by Terran Confed units were war prizes more highly valued than the usual stodgy craft taken in battle, and were often turned against the Vilani by their new owners.

Another class to survive the Long Night with both Vilani and Solomani operators, the Garfish was incorporated as an Imperial Design Package almost from the beginning of that program. The class was extremely common among smaller TL-9 and 10 colonial navies on both sides of the Imperium-Solomani frontier, and factions in both states put the class back into production during the Hard Times. A moderate number still exists within the Regency of Deneb, mostly among the spinward worlds of Deneb sector, with their largely Vilani descended populations or cultures.

General Data

Engineering

Power Plant: TL-10 1480 MW Fusion (Eight Months Duration) (25 MW/Hit)

Jump Performance: 2xJump-1 (840 m3 per parsec)

G-Rating: 3G Heplar (350 MW/G), CG Lifters (Improved, 140 MW)

G-Turns: 54 (43.75 m3 each), 98.8 using jump fuel

Fuel Tankage: 4322.5 m3+148 m3 for power plant

Maint: 362

Electronics

Computer: 3xTL-10Fb (0.6 MW)
Commo: 3x1000 AU Radio (20 MW), 3x1000 AU Maser (0.6 MW)
Avionics: Imaging EMS, Grav Inertial Positioning, 140 km NOE
Sensors: PEMS 150,000 km Fixed Array (Range:5, 0.3 MW), AEMS 2x300,000 km (Range:10, 130 MW)
ECM/ECCM: EMM (9.8 MW)
Workstations: 10 Bridge plus 27 Normal

Armament

Offensive: 4x148 MJ Remote Laser Barbettes (Loc:6,7,8,9; Arcs:All, 4 MW) arranged as two batteries

Weapon Performance

148 MJ Laser Barbette 1:1/10-30 2:1/10-30 4:1/8-23 8:1/4-11

Defensive: 3xTL-10 Sandcasters (Loc:10x2,11, Arcs:All, 20 Canisters, Atten:1D10x5, 1 MW)

Fire Control: 2xTL-10 msl/bm MFD (Range:5, -3 DMs, 1 Crew, 0.12 MW)

Accomodations

Life Support: Extended (1.96 MW), AG/GC (1G, 49 MW)

Crew: 42 (2 Maneuver, 2 Electronics, 2 Gunnery, 3 Screens, 22 Engineering, 5 Maintenance, 6 Command)

Crew Accomodations: 6 Small Staterooms (Single Occupancy), 18 Small Staterooms (Double Occupancy)

Passenger Accomodations: 10 Small Staterooms (Varying Occupancy)

Airlocks: 7

Cargo: 509.71 m3, 2 Large Cargo Hatches

Small Craft and Launch Facilities: Provision for a Type 400 or 420 Cutter (Docking Ring), One Launch Port

Other Fittings: None

Features: Fuel Scoops (5%, 2.21 hours), Fuel Processing Plant (48 hours, 4.33 MW)

118.937 MW Shortfall