Freelance Traveller

by Peter Gray

Overview

In antebellum times, private companies often accumulated their own arsenals of armed ships in disproportionate amounts to their needs. This often forced other companies to divert vast sums of money on their own armed escort craft to deter trade war attacks upon their merchant ships. Al Morai lines of the Spinward Marches is most famous for its Route Protectors, an elite unit of small surplus escorts manned with crack crews. In her case Al Morai faced not only corporate privateers but frontier pirates or Zhodani and Vargr raiders in wartime. Gazelle-class escorts fulfilled the primary security roles for the company for decades, but these craft were being outclassed these by newer Vargr raiders during the first years of the Civil War. In response to these new threats, and generally dismayed at the cost and logistical incompatibilities of its patchwork fleet of surplus ships, Al Morai commissioned these purpose built craft from General Shipyards of Efate and Jewell. But, in an ironic twist, most of these craft were requisitioned by the Domain of Deneb Navy in 1120, with few actually serving with the company (which was duly compensated by the Admiralty). About three hundred and eighty of these craft were completed, with many serving with the Regency Quarantine Service as convoy escorts within the Frontier, protecting merchant ships from potential vampire attacks (and deterring piracy or hijacking into the Wilds). The class's short range and pumped up armament were less than suitable for most Quarantine duties, and the class was downgraded to the Colonial fleets after serving a mere fifteen years on the Frontier. Besides serving with Regency planetary navies, about half of the class was transferred to the Darrian Confederation Navy, where it serves as its standard "corvette" class.

Though the Rendek is a proprietary design, the class is typical of the kinds of purpose built ships commissioned and purchased by a number of Imperial era corps. These ships are generally a category in of themselves, being too large to be corvettes, but not well armed enough to be destroyer escorts or frigates. The core of the class is four massive 18 ton double barbettes, each containing two 665 MJ lasers. Other armament is minimal, though extra MFDs are fitted for missle tubes or kickout ordinance. Two sandcasters and 5 cm of enhanced bonded superdense give it good performance against the typical pirate or vampire ship. Bunk space is installed for a squad or SecDets or ships' troops, who are a double threat in space and ground operations thanks to a Gig installed in an amidships ventral docking ring. She shares her configuration with the smaller Type E escort: an airframed isosceles triangular lifting body.

This class is based upon a description in GURPS Traveller: Behind the Claw sourcebook.

General Data

Displacement: 750	Hull Armor: 165
Length: 68.75 meters	Volume: 10,500 cubic meters
Price: MCr 438.706	Target Size: S
Configuration: Wedge AF	Tech Level: F (15)
Mass (L/E): 9,244.11 tons/8,451.06 tons

Engineering

Power Plant: TL-15 3132 MW Fusion (One Year Duration) (300 MW/Hit)
Jump Performance: Jump-2 (787.5 m3 per parsec, 1575 m3 for J-2)
G-Rating: 6G Heplar (375 MW/G), CG Lifters (75 MW)
G-Turns: 72 (46.875 m3 each) plus 11.2 for each point of jdrive fuel used as reaction mass, for a total of 105.6
Fuel Tankage: 4950 m3+313.2 m3 for power plant
Maint: 244

Electronics

Computer: 3xTL15Fb (1.1 MW)
Commo: 2x1000 AU Radio (20 MW), 2x1000 AU Maser (0.6 MW)
Avionics: 190 km NOE, Imaging EMS, Grav/Inertial Positioning
Sensors: PEMS 150,000 km Fixed Array (Range:5, 0.15 MW), 210,000 km, Folding Array (Range:7, 0.25 MW), AEMS 2x480,000 km (Range:16, 25 MW)
ECM/ECCM: EMM (9.8 MW)
Workstations: 9 Bridge plus 24 Normal

Armament

Offensive

8x665 MJ Lasers in 4xRemote Double Barbettes (Loc:6-9, Arcs:All, 18.47 MW, Barbette Volume:252 m3)

Weapon Performance

665 MJ DLB 10:1/21-64 20:1/21-64 40:1/21-64 80:1/21-64

Defensive

2xRemote Sandcasters (Loc:10,11, Arcs:All; Canisters:50, Beam Atten:2D10x5, 1 Crew each, 1 MW)

Fire Control

4xmsl/bm MFD (Range:10, -6 DMs, 1 Crew, 0.06 MW)

Accomodations

Life Support: Extended (2.1 MW), AG/GC (6G, 49 MW)
Crew: 40 (2 Maneuver, 2 Electronics, 4 Gunnery, 1 Screens, 20
Engineering, 2 Maintenance, 3 Small Craft, 5 Command, 1 Medic) plus an option for up to 12 Ships Troops
Crew Accomodations: 6 Small Staterooms (Single Occupancy), 16 Small Staterooms (Double Occupancy), 12xBunks (Single Occupancy)
Airlocks: 7
Cargo: 448.86 m3 (32.06 tons), 2 Large Cargo Hatches
Small Craft and Launch Facilities: 20 ton Gig (Docking Ring), Launch Port
Other Fittings: Sickbay
Features: Fuel Scoops (10%, 1.18 hours), Fuel Processing Plant (24 hours, 6.19 MW)
34.442 MW Surplus

System Damage Tables

Damage Location Table