Traveler-class transport

A highly adaptable vessel mainly designed for transport and Cargo runs.

The origins of the design are unknown, but it seemed to focus on compact design combined with flat-panel construction to enable easy replacement of damaged hull plating, as well as including frame hardpoints for extra armor, shielding, or other external equipment as well as an internal set-up that makes it massively adaptable and able to be modified to the user's desired requirements. The main section of the craft was re-designed to enable sections to be added to the “neck”, increasing its internal capacity. Overall, the Traveler is a very flexible design and able to be used for Cargo, personnel, as well as possible conversions into warships if necessary (and if provided with the appropriate add-ons).

Nothing that hasn't already been mentioned. The Traveler can be modified through the addition of modular sections that can add room and functionality to the vessel through increased Cargo space, extra engines/generators, or other extra equipment.

Cargo and personnel transportation as well as possibilities in Smuggling.

The standard appearance is of a vessel shaped like a stubby arrow. A octagonal primary hull with two triangular “wings” and two triangular fins creating a diamond silhouette when viewed from overhead. When extra modules are added, the primary hull is lengthened and the forward fin array is pushed forward, making the appearance more like a high-altitude military jet (only many times bigger).

External View: Top and Forward Elevations

Another of hundreds of independent designs constructed by short-lived corporations or small companies in need of cheap ships, the Traveler-class was a design adapted by NovaCorp from a derelict brought in by a salvager. NovaCorp designers saw the potential of the wreck and were inspired to create the Traveler class.

The nickname “The Flying Vee” comes from an obscure cultural reference to an offensive formation that pierces through an opponent's defense, which the Traveler can be equipped to do in order to deliver Cargo to dangerous areas or war zones.

Class: No-L1-1a

Type: Medium to Heavy Freighter/Supply ship with options for combat re-purposing

Designers: NovaCorp

Manufacturer: NovaCorp

Production: On-demand

Fielded by: Anyone who can afford one, but aimed mainly toward merchants and independent ship-owners.

Crew: 5 operators are recommended, but only one is required.

Maximum Capacity: There are comfortable accommodations for about 30 people. Anywhere between 65 (in the habitat module alone) to 200 people (including estimated available space in the Cargo bays) can fit aboard in an emergency, but the ship would be extremely cramped.

Length: 100 meters (328.1 feet)

Width: 100 meters (328.1 feet) Note: Primary hull is only 25 meters wide. The rest of the width is composed of the wings.

Height: 25 meters (82.02 feet)

Decks: 3 standard

Continuum Distortion Drive: 7,500c (~0.855 ly/h)

Hyperspace Fold Drive: 157,788c (0.30 ly/m, ~18 ly/h)

Sublight Engines: 0.15c

Speed (Aerial): Mach 3 with friction shielding, Mach 1.75 without

Speed (Aquatic): 25 knots with friction shielding, 5 knots without

Range: <FOLD RANGE TO BE ADDED>; 4 months of oxygen if not equipped with the recycling system, Food recycling effective for 4 years.

Lifespan: With routine upgrades & maintenance, the frame of the Traveler class has an estimated lifetime of 60 to 70 years. If the frame and modules are maintained and replaced when necessary, the Traveler can extend its lifespan to indefinite.

Refit Cycle: As needed. Modular upgrades become available as they are developed and produced.

The Traveler has two module types in standard configuration: Habitat and Cargo. Habitation modules are divided into three decks. The first deck contains many empty rooms mostly used for storage, but available to house extra crew or passengers. The deck also has the medbay/science lab (who wouldn't want the potentially dangerous part of the ship near the hull?). At the bow of the first deck is the Stargazer's Seat/wardroom with two guest quarters attached to it, one to the port side and one to the starboard.

The second deck contains the primary crew quarters, the mess hall, and the main bridge, with munitions for the main weapons stored in the bow along with manual controls for said weapons.

The third deck is the engineering section, containing the main and backup generators, machine and parts storage, the main weapons, and sensors.

There are two passageways on the first and second decks (4m by 4m / 13.12 feet by 13.12 feet), and a single double-wide (8 meters wide) passageway on the third deck in the forward section of the Traveler. The normal passages are right octagonals while the double-wide is more rectangular in form. The floor is normally furnished with a thin carpet and smart-material padding under the carpet, but can be exchanged for textured, slip-proof polymer flooring.

The passageways on the first deck terminate at the wardroom to the bow and the Upper Hold at the aft end, but the passages on the second and third decks end at the ship's munitions storage (second deck) and weapon control room (third deck) to the bow and the Lower Hold at the aft end.

There are four armories on deck one, two at the bow and two near the aft section, and four armories on deck two, with the two at the bow being expanded rooms for maintenance equipment, larger weapons, and munitions. Each armory is stocked according to the owner's resources, but the rooms themselves can hold multiple copies of nearly every personal weapon in the known universe.

The forward lounge (nicknamed “The Stargazer's Seat” by Capt. Tabier) is a squarish room with comparatively luxurious decor relative to the rest of the ship. It serves a purpose similar to the parlor in most early 1900's homes, namely, the receiving and entertaining of guests and visitors. On the Traveler class, the lounge also has guest quarters (though these are usually cleared out to provide more storage space for parts and provisions, depending on the owner, captain, and crew). The wardroom also has a staircase that leads down to the mess hall on deck two, allowing food to be brought up from the kitchen. The staircase has a door at the mess hall end, normally left closed.

There are five exits total: One for each set of guest quarters. Two more, one leading out into each main corridor for deck one. And a door at the bottom of the staircase leading into the mess hall on deck two. (Or seven exits, if one counts the two ventilation shafts that open near the ceiling of the wardroom. These run fore to aft, from the wardroom to over the Upper Hold.)

The lounge/wardroom furnishings are not standard, but are available as options from NovaCorp in the production model of the Traveler, many of which are similar in taste and function to the furnishings in the Captain's Quarters and Wardroom aboard the Marsina-class Cruiser.

The captain's suite is decked out luxurious like most of NovaCorp's production vessels, but the overall size is merely double that of a single crew quarters (which is still quite large). The suite includes a small kitchenette with sink and stove, and a bathroom insert.

The rooms are three meters by three meters and are able to bunk two in the same room but usually are used by one person since transport crews are allowed to be somewhat small. There are 24 quarters on the Traveler class (twelve on deck one and twelve on deck two), each with available twin-sized bunk (able to be disassembled for storage), a built-in closet with drawers, and the option of carpet, traction flooring, or raw metal deck.

The rooms in deck one are arranged identical to the crew quarters on deck two. The rooms are normally furnished with a bunk and a built-in closet/dresser, but the bunks are usually all moved into one or two rooms if the quarters is used as storage instead of residence.

The medical bay is medium-sized and moderately appointed, it shares a room with the ship's dedicated laboratory. The room is divided into thirds: One third to the medbay, one third is shared, and one third is the laboratory. The dedicated lab section has a blast door that is able to be lowered to cut it off from the medbay, as well as a blast door that opens into the Upper Hold. This second blast door is normally locked and sealed, used only in emergencies (like venting failed experiments out into space via the rear Cargo hatch).

Same as those on deck one. These are usually used first, since that puts the crew on the same deck as the bridge and mess hall, as well as being equal distance from the medbay and engineering.

Little space is wasted on more than a single designated recreational area, but the room is optioned to be fitted with as much as the owner can (or is willing to) spare on entertainment options. The rec room on the Traveler has space for up to three couches and nine to fifteen people comfortably, or up to twenty-five in tight quarters. It is located on the second deck between the crew habitat blocks.

The mess hall is a small place, about the same size as the Rec room, with a kitchen taking up an eighth or so of that space with most primary cooking devices and utensils stocked. Ingredients are stocked according to the tastes of the captain, crew, and according to resources on hand.

There is also a Food replicator that can enforce rationing if necessary, as well as provide “matter recycling” services. This has earned it the affectionate name “Ralph” by the developers of the system since it both coughs up food that has already been…“processed”, and also because some people seem to want to revisit their lunches whenever they think about what the matter in their food used to be. However, Ralph does a very good job of replication, the difference in which can only be noticed when tasted side-by-side with the hand-made version. Needless to say, Food By Ralph loses a bit of nutritional content every time it is recycled. This can be offset by nutritional additives, but usually isn't since it should be rare that the food replicator is used.

[OOC Note: Image not to scale.]

The bridge is a geodesic module designed to survive separate from the rest of the ship and serve as a lifeboat in an emergency. The bridge resides on the second deck, with clamps locking it between the first and third decks. The module skin is Nerimium (DR 6) and it is equipped with sixteen CRT thrusters for independent maneuvering. The ship's computer cores reside under the floor and in the ceiling. The four terminals set into the walls and one free-standing terminal are adaptive to performing their desired function (Customary arrangement is to have one ship operations, one communications/weapons, one science, and one navigational terminal with the freestanding one being assigned to the pilot), and are usually keyed to their users so that only preset functions will be accessible to each person's access profile. Only authorized officers can override these presets.

Engineering takes up the entirety of deck three. This is composed of the main drive core, which is situated horizontally in the aft half, and the sensor suites in the forward half. Although the computer core is located in the bridge module, there is a backup core behind the sensor suites in the bow of the ship.

Between decks 1 & 2 and decks 2 & 3 are octagonal tunnels approximately 2.5 meters in diameter that run directly on the main corridor walls (see picture). These maintenance tunnels provide access to primary power conduit routes as well as parts and circuit boards most likely to require repairs. There are no maintenance tunnels above deck one or below deck three; repairable parts there are located directly above the ceiling or below floor with removable plating covering them. Access to the maintenance conduits is available at each end of the conduits, as well as via hatches located in the corner at the end of each corridor on all three decks. [diagram pending]

The most important part of any transport ship, the Traveler has vast holds for its Cargo. The Upper Hold is one deck high, but the Lower Hold is two decks, and both are cavernous spaces designed to hold nearly any size and shape container and outfitted for rapid loading and unloading. There are Cargo doors both fore and aft, with the forward doors located in the 'wings' and fitted with graviton beam manipulators for easy movement of heavy Cargo. There is also a Cargo hatch in the rear floor of the Lower Hold, near the aft Cargo door. The Cargo areas also double as a shuttle and power armor storage, maintenance, and launch bay.

Each set of doors (and the hatch) are reinforced and fitted with redundant set of atmospheric force field emitters for the admission and offloading of Cargo and shuttles/PAs while in a vacuum or so the ship can serve as an emergency shelter in the event of a loss of atmosphere in a space station landing bay.

OOC Notes: This Section is a Propositional Arrangement. I will adjust it as necessary.

Composed of 0.5 meter-thick panels of steel alloys around a carbon nanotube frame and Mercurite anti-radiation shielding, the Traveler’s hull relies more on its mounted armor for protection, and that protection is reliant on the size of the ship-owner's wallet. The wings usually have more armor than the body because there's no use surviving an attack only to have the employer kill the crew when they arrive with damaged or no Cargo.

4 sections in standard configuration: Fore, Aft, Port Wing, Starboard Wing. Each section has a primary skin of Steel Alloy plating, DR 3. Each Module section = +1 section = DR 3 for that additional section.

10 main armor hardpoint sections: Forward Port, Forward Starboard, Forward dorsal, Forward ventral, Aft port, Aft starboard, Aft dorsal, Aft ventral. Each additional Module = 4 armor sections (1 Port, 1 Starboard, 1 Dorsal, and 1 Ventral). Options for armor composition are according to the means of the ship-owner and shall be listed in each individual ship's profile.

Wings: 3 armor sections per wing (6 total): Port Wing Upper, Lower, and Side; Starboard Wing Upper, Lower, and Side. Each section Nerimium, DR 6. These come standard.

The computer is advanced, fast, and utilizes super dense unitary partial quantum computation, but it is not sentient. NovaCorp has decided that one of the AI’s that Ephesus helps make would not be content with controlling a transport any more than it would like controlling an agricultural ship, and so has simply made it a very advanced ‘dumb’ computer. It can still perform almost any task required of it, and bio-neural interfaces work at nearly full efficiency.

Intra-ship communications uses the sound-powered telephone system, which will work without power because your voice acts as the source of current in the phone circuit. Each receiver is also transmitter; enabling people to talk into the earpiece if a mouthpiece is broken and vice versa. Most of the system is wired into panels at each doorway both outside and in to ensure that there is always a means of communication present.

Intership communications uses standard radio, subspace radio (for FTL communications and data transmission), and laser transmitters. The ship's computer enables custom creations of information encryption and code-breaking abilities.

The ship is naturally divided into four zones (when in standard configuration): Fore, Aft, Left Wing, and Right Wing. Each module composes its own section. Each zone can be locked off from the other zones, and, in a pinch, the ship can separate into its component modules. Between the Forward and Aft modules (or any one of the modules if more have been added) is the bridge module, which doubles as a lifeboat since it is self-contained, holds the comm and comp systems, and is very armored with limited directional ability, enabling survivors to live in it and possibly land on a nearby planet.

The Traveler is sold with two dozen li'l (0.25 m diameter) spheres that are designed for mimicry of several types of ship including lifeboats. Called “Mockingbird” drones, an activated drone is set adrift and emits the EM signature and engine mark of the selected ship type (often identical or smaller than the user ship). The drone then either projects a desired status, and is capable of imitating a disabled ship (including distress calls), a fleeing ship, or a ship with a partially functional hyperdrive by popping in and out of hyperspace within a five AU range of the drone's drop-off point. The Mockingbird can also emit the energy signature of a disabled, partially active, or active cloak, even though the device itself cannot cloak.

The size of the drone makes it difficult for the pursuing ship to make a visual confirmation before realizing their error, but it is most effective against pursuers who have not encountered one before. The drone self-destructs after three hours and can be set for a silent destruction that only destroys its internal workings or it can be fitted with explosives for more dramatic explosions, such as mimicking a drive failure or other purposes. The drones also completely disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, which unfortunately don't make them very promising for “message in a bottle” usage unless picked up in space before it is caught in a planet's grip.

Standard gravity systems, but with varying configurations possible. The gravity generators in the Lower Hold are usually left inactive in order to conserve power.

The doors of the airlocks are lined with graviton beam emitters, and there is one beam emitter located in the center of the ceiling and on the floor of each Cargo module for quick, easy movement for large containers/vehicles.

The main airlocks are located at the aft and forward Cargo doors. Two docking ports and airlocks are located on the aft dorsal section at the junction where the D1 passage opens into the Upper Hold. All airlocks are triple-redundant and able to be armed and secured in the event of a forced intrusion. Further alterations are according to the means of the ship-owner.

The Traveler can be modified through addition of modular sections that can add room and functionality to the vessel through increased Cargo space, extra engines/generators, or other extra equipment. The MASS system uses a triple-redundant series of recessed locks and latches on the middle hull to hold the modules together and require a three-crew-member- or a single-officer-authorization to release while in space. The junctions are sealed with smart materials and checked daily for integrity by the computer and should be checked visually every time the ship makes planetside landings.

• Power Sources: The Traveler uses one primary fusion reactor, one micro-fusion reactor, and two micro-quantum foam generators. The micro-fusion provides back-up power for the critical systems (life-support, engines) and can provide minimal power to one or two weapons while the QFGs act as secondary power sources. The first QFG is located in the Aft module and is intended to provide power for whatever Cargo requires it (such as refrigeration containers), but can also have its power shuted to any system that needs it. The second QFG is located in the Bridge module and provides power to computers and the Forward section(s) as long as the Bridge is still attached to the ship.

• Propulsion (STL): Standard ion drive, located at the trailing edge of each wing and a backup drive located underneath the rear Cargo bay door. There are 30 maneuvering clusters evenly spaced about the hull.

• Propulsion (FTL): Standard gravitic drive, located in the Forward module near the middle of the ship on Deck Three.

• OPTIONAL (STL): DRIP Fusion Drive: Expensive, hazardous, but provides abundant energy through heavy-hydrogen fusion. Nearly required to operate the SEA Shield. The heavy hydrogen used to fuel this engine is rather expensive, but can be rationed to last longer and the engine could probably survive heavy modification as well to increase safety and fuel efficiency. This would replace both the Primary Reactor and the ion drive.

• OPTIONAL (FTL): Inertialess drive. This would replace the gravitic drive.

• Primary Shield System: Standard Static Shielding, arranged in three layers (DR 4 each). When one layer is about to fail, it cycles out with the two below it to recharge.

• Secondary Shield System: EMBLEM Shield System (DR 5?): Uses strong electromagnetic fields to divert energy beams, regular matter, high-energy lasers, antimatter, and normal (high-frequency EM) solar radiation. Useful for a vessel wanting to survive things long enough to run away rather than sticking around long enough to fight back or for protection against normal space debris at high speeds. Useless against extremely heavy matter and strongly-bonded or neutral-charge energy beams.

• OPTIONAL: SEA Shield: Uses a trio of nested fields and plasma charges to vaporize incoming matter. Very complex, very expensive to maintain, but possible. As with most optional accessories to the Traveler class, enabling this system relies on the depth of the ship owner's pockets.

In standard configuration, the Traveler has 16 weapon hardpoints, to be equipped as the owner sees fit and can afford. Hardpoints 1-8 are located on the Forward module, 9-16 are on the Aft. Two of the Aft hardpoints are located on the tips of the wings, and one over the aft Cargo bay door. Each additional module is fitted with 4 hardpoints (one for each surface except for the connecting and angled surfaces), adding to the overall total.

There is also one main weapon that is permanently installed in the nose of the ship.

Upon purchase, the Traveler is equipped with the following weapons:

• Main Weapon: Type 1 Photon Lance: 1, DR 7

Located on the nose of the Traveler.

• Secondary Weapon:Graser Pulse Cannon 4, DR 7

One GPC is located on the following hardpoints: 3 & 4 on the Forward module, 6 & 7 on the Aft.

• Point Defense: Type 2 HEX turrets: 12, DR 6

Used as Point Defense, these turrets are located on the following hardpoints: 1-2, 5, and 11-13 on the Forward module; 6-10, and 14-16 on the Aft module.

(OOC: Hardpoint locations will be included on a separate picture, to be added as soon as I can)

The Traveler can house up to 6 Jilanth shuttles (using up all Cargo space); one shuttle is included with the purchase of the Traveler.