Pirates are a major problem in the Three Galaxies, especially in areas of the galaxies away from the major powers. In places where major governments hold sway, pirates tread lightly. Most pirates avoid tangling with real warships because even when they win, they often lose because their ships are usually heavily damaged.
Pirates use a motley crew of different vessels. Some are military vessels that they have managed to acquire, most old and even truly ancient in many cases. Sources of such ships include scrap yards which are not careful with their ships although there are also cases where military contractors do not care much who they sell to. Companies such as Naruni will sell to anybody.
Most pirate ships are converted merchant hulls. Merchant hulls are far more common than warships and weaponry is also far easier to acquire than a warship. Merchant ships are far cheaper than warships in most cases. Conversion of merchant ships into pirate ships is done by the pirates themselves and often improvised to a large extent. While pirates are best known for converting merchant ships, conversions of merchant hulls into warships is not unknown by small militaries and mercenaries especially into escort carriers.
Most pirate ships tend to be fairly small although a few are cruiser sized. There are almost no pirate ships larger than cruiser class. Small ships tend to be far cheaper as well as requiring far smaller crews. Even so, pirates usually want a ship larger than a heavy fighter or courier because such ships carry too light a weaponry to be effective at capturing merchant ships. Such ships are popular among runners however..
"The Razor" is fairly typical for a relatively small pirate vessel. There is huge variation in pirate vessels converted from merchant hulls and almost no two vessels are exactly alike. "The Razor" is converted from a LOMAX light merchant ship originally named "LC Victoria." The LOMAX hull is a fairly popular hull for pirates to convert from to build pirate ships. They are both cheap and commons. It is unknown how the pirates acquired the merchant ship in the first place. Since in the hands of pirates, the ship has been modified several times and has gone through its share of captains, officers, and crew.
The most important part of pirate ships is the weaponry. While weaponry is important on true warships, sensor systems and other features are just as important. Pirate vessels often skip on defensive systems. The standard decoy and jamming systems usually carried on warships are often lacking. In this, the Razor is similar to many pirate vessels with its sensor systems mostly civilian in origins and lacking a sophisticate electronic warfare suite.
The main weaponry on "The Razor" are a pair of particle beams and a pair of capital missile launchers. The particle beams are most likely stripped from an old wrecked Hunter class destroyer. Because of the power limitations of the fusion plant retained from the merchant design, the pirate ship is limited to two of these heavy particle beams. Some pirate ships mount additional fusion plants to support additional heavy energy weapons. The capital missile launchers are an older Kreeghor type design with a total of forty missiles between the two launchers. These are modified so that a single missile can be fired. Often a single missile is fired so that a target can be threatened into surrendering. In addition, gravity well warheads are sometimes used to targets can be pulled from faster than light space. The specialty warheads such as X-Ray laser, heavy anti-matter, and heavy gravity wearheads are not available. Decoy missiles, while available, are almost never carried by pirates.
Defensive weapon systems are limited to those from when the ship was in merchant service, four light laser mounts and a pair of medium range missile launchers. In comparison, a Hunter class destroyer has twice as many point defense mounts as the Razor. The two medium range missile launchers have thirty-two missiles ready to fire each compared to five times as many in the missile magazines on a Hunter. As such, the Razor's point defense is inadequate generally when compared to a true warship.
"The Razor" does mount military class variable shields. Many pirate ships do not mount anything more than civilian shields. Even so, the shields are only eighty percent as powerful as the shields carried on a Hunter class destroyer. The hull is unreinforced from civilian standards and the ship must be considered comparatively fragile. Compared to most warships, the vessel does have a large amount of cargo capability. Pirates like to be able to carry off any loot they are able to plunder. Weaponry does cut somewhat into the cargo carrying ability compared to what it had as a merchant ship.
While pirates try to keep crews small, additional weaponry does increase crew by around fifty percent compared to when it was a light merchant ship. The ship also carries forty troops for boarding ships which it manages to capture. About half of the troops are usually cyborgs or equipped with light power armors. Because the ship has no shuttles, it has to dock with a ship it captures or force it to land on a planet or moon before board. Commonly the pirate will order their target to shut down their fusion reactors down and will blow the engines out to prevent it from being able to escape. In addition, the Razor does not carry any fighters. Some pirate craft do carry a handful of light fighters.
The ship is also slow compared to most warships and only has about seventy percent of the acceleration of a Hunter class destroyer. It does have military class particle shielding which allows the ship to reach higher sublight speeds than most merchant vessels. In addition to having low acceleration, the pirate ship has a maximum faster than light speed of three light years per hour.
Ship design uses modified starship speeds and weapon ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.
Model Type: Modified LOMAX Light Freighter
Vehicle Type: Pirate Frigate
Crew: 38 (6 Officers and 32 Ordinary Crew)
Troops: 40 (20 usually with light power armors or are cyborg
troops)
Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:
Power Armors:
| 20 | Light Power Armors / Cyborg Soldiers (Maximum) |
M.D.C. By Location:
| Heavy Particle Beam Cannons (2, built into front): | 650 each | |
| Cruise Missile Batteries (2, sides): | 800 each | |
| Double Barrel Defense Laser Turrets (4): | 100 each | |
| Medium Range Missile Launchers (2): | 400 each | |
| Outer Hull (40 x 40 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area): | 100 | |
| Inner Hull (40 x 20 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area): | 75 | |
| [1] Bridge: | 800 | |
| [2] Main Engines (2): | 1,500 each | |
| [3] Main Body: | 4,500 | |
| [4] Variable Force Field: | 800 a side (4,800 Total) |
Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ships hull. This ship does not have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted
from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be
at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the
ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the main engines means that ship F.T.L. systems are
destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the merchant ship
out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life
support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable
floating wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one
shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (240 M.D.C.) per melee round.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship
to travel up to 20 percent of the. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate
at the rate of 0.70 percent of light per melee. Ship has had the merchant
radiation and particle shields replaced with military shields.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 450 mph (724.2 kph),
can enter an atmosphere because flight system is by contra grav.
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship
to reach a maximum of 3 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system.
Carries about six months worth of supplies on board (Can be stretched to
nine months in an emergency)
Statistical Data:
Length: 550 feet (167.64 meters)
Height: 68 feet (20.73 meters)
Width: 84 feet (25.60 meters)
Mass/ Weight: 8,800 tons (7980 metric tons)
Power System: Fusion with a 20 year life span. The ship normally
only goes 5 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows
for carrying up to 3,000 tons (2720 metric tons) of cargo in addition to
standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member
has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ships officers have
more space for personal items. Most of the ships spaces are taken up by
extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: Merchant hull costs approximately 100 million credits.
Conversion cost approximately 200 million credits for weaponry, shields,
and other systems.
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
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By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
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