Step 11: Hangars and Small Craft

SMALL CRAFT

Almost all ships of destroyer size or larger carry a couple of small craft—a launch, pinnace, gig, or a scout fighter—to get into places that the ship itself can’t go. In fact, many warships rely on small craft as their exclusive main armament. Big carriers may embark hundreds of fighters and strike fighters.

If your ship design includes any room for embarked small craft, you should also design the fighters and launches your ship carries. You can save some time by using existing small craft designs.

Docking Clamps (PL 6)

The docking clamp is a hardpoint and airlock where another ship can secure itself to the hull. The maximum capacity of a docking clamp is 10 hull points per 2 hull points installed; a docking clamp capable of securing ships of up to 30 hull points would require 3 docking clamps, or one docking clamp purchased at three times the normal size and cost. Ships mated to docking clamps can disengage in a single phase.

Many carriers are built with their fighters carried on docking clamps. Not only does this save a lot of space, it also allows all the fighters to disengage simultaneously— there’s no restriction on the number of embarked craft that can be launched in one round in this fashion. Docking clamps have several drawbacks.

First, the embarked ships are outside the carrier’s hull and are not protected by its armor, bulk, or life support. Repair work or service to the embarked craft must be carried out in e-suits under vacuum conditions, which is hazardous and inefficient. Second, it’s impossible to enter a planetary atmosphere while embarked craft are attached to docking clamps.

The craft must be detached and flown down separately, or parked in a convenient orbit for retrieval when the carrier leaves the atmosphere again. Finally, the embarked ships may not exceed more than 10 percent of the carrier’s hull. In other words, a 400-hull point cruiser can carry up to 40 hull points of embarked craft, but no more.

Note: You may exceed this limit if you wish, but if the embarked craft total to more than 10 percent of the carrier’s hull points, then they count toward the carrier’s hull point total for purposes of calculating maneuverability and FTL travel. For example, a 400-hull point ship with 20 docking clamps could carry as much as 200 hull points of embarked craft. However, this means that its 40-hull point engines—10 percent of the hull, in normal circumstances—now comprise only 6.67 percent of the total hull points. (This rounds down to 5 percent.) In this case, the carrier probably loses some of its acceleration and travels at a slower FTL rate while all those embarked craft are alongside.

Hangar (PL 6)

The hangar is an internal docking, launch, storage, and service facility for embarked craft. It requires 1 hull point for each hull point of embarked craft, so a super-carrier with a hangar of 1000 hull points could carry 100 fighters of 10 hull points each. Regardless of the hangar capacity, a ship of 100 hull points or more is simply too big to fit into any other ship’s hangar.

A hangar is not anywhere near as efficient as a set of exterior docking clamps for carrying a large number of craft. However, it has several advantages. The embarked ships are stored inside the carrier’s hull, and cannot be targeted by enemy weapons (although the carrier itself can certainly be attacked).

Second, the carrier can freely enter planetary atmospheres while its embarked craft are inside the ship. Last but not least, embarked craft carried in a hangar do not count toward the ship’s hull points, and have no effect on the carrier’s acceleration or FTL travel rates. Hangars may launch or recover no more than one craft per phase per hangar; some ships divide their hangar space among two or more hangars so that embarked craft can be launched and recovered at a faster rate.

At Progress Levels 6 or 7, the hangar must be depressurized to launch or recover embarked craft. However, if PL 8 technology of type Q or M is available, the hangar can be sealed by energy screens. This allows the ship to launch straight to space without exposing the hangar to vacuum.

Magazine (PL 6)

Just because a carrier embarks 50 fighters armed with matter bombs, it doesn’t mean that there are more matter bombs lying around for the fighters to rearm and strike again. Carriers whose embarked craft rely on dropped ordnance or missiles require vast ordnance stores to sustain any kind of prolonged hostilities. Each hull point spent on magazines can store 4 size points of missiles, mines, or bombs.

Progress Level 6: Fusion Age

Progress Level 7: Gravity Age

Ordnance Transfer System-

Progress Level 8: Energy Age

• A hangar costs $100 K, plus $25 K per hull point spent on the system.

Tech: The technology type necessary to build this device. Hull: The number of hull points required by the system.

Power: The number of power points required by one unit of this type.

Cost: The cost for one unit of this system.

Type: The general category of this system for purposes of assigning it to the damage diagram.

Step 12: Miscellaneous

INSTALLATIONS

The last systems a shipbuilder normally considers are the

bunkroom, docking clamp, hangar, cargo hold, or ordnance transfer system; additional airlocks may be purchased at a cost of 1 hull point and 10 K each.

Brig (PL 6)

miscellaneous facilities that don’t really fit into any other

category. Some of these may be crucial to the ship’s mission; a heavy freighter should buy its cargo space first, and its defensive armament second.

Airlock (PL 6)

A small compartment with two heavy-duty hatches—one

Think of the brig as accommodations for undesirable passengers. Each two hull points devoted to the brig provides individual cells for four individuals, plus a security station, interrogation room, visiting area, and alarm system in case any of the guests decides to leave.

Cargo Space (PL 6)

leading outside the ship, the other leading inside—the airlock

also includes the pumps and controls necessary to pressurize or depressurize the room. A ship automatically includes one free airlock per command deck, crew quarters, crew

One hull point provides enough space for 10 cubic meters of cargo, or one cargo unit. A compartment 2 meters tall, 2 meters wide, and 2.5 meters deep would be typical for 1

hull point of cargo space. Simply buying this system multiple times can purchase more cargo space.

Cargo Bay (PL 6)

Two hull points provide enough space for 50 cubic meters of cargo, or five cargo units. This is more efficient than two one-hull point cargo space because systems such as bulkheads, hatches, monitoring, and climate control don’t need to be duplicated in the larger cargo bay. A space 4 meters wide, 2.5 meters tall, and about 5 meters deep is reasonable for a cargo bay.

A cargo bay can be made larger by purchasing the system multiple times. The cargo bay includes an exterior hatch, although this isn’t an airlock.

Cargo Hold (PL 6)

Three hull points provide space for 100 cubic meters of cargo, or ten cargo units. This is more efficient than three one-point cargo spaces, or even a two-point bay plus a one-point space. An area 2.5 meters tall, 4 meters wide, and about 10 meters deep is reasonable for a 3-point hold.

Large ships might purchase a cargo hold several times to create a hold with a capacity of 500 or 1,000 cubic meters. The cargo hold includes a large cargo or vehicular airlock for exterior access.

Escape Pod (PL 6)

The escape pod is a stripped-down version of the boarding pod. It can carry ten people, and it includes 100 man-days of air and supplies. It’s equipped with an emergency distress beacon and an automated landing program that will get its passengers to a planetary surface if there isn’t a pilot on board.

The power cells allow up to 6 hours of flight.

Hangar (PL 6)

The hangar is an enclosed, internal space where small craft can be stored, maintained, launched, and recovered. Its capacity is one hull point of small craft per hull point allocated to the system, so a 200-hull point hangar could carry 20 10-hull point fighters. The hangar itself is a triple-airlock that can be opened to space, sealed from space, or sealed with a portion open to space for launch and recovery of small craft.

Fuel Collectors (PL 6)

Many Fusion Age systems require large amounts of hydrogen fuel. A ship could be stranded without propulsion or power by exhausting its fuel supply in a system lacking any kind of fuelling facilities. A fuel collector system allows a ship to process fuel from sources found even in the most desolate star systems.

Gas giants hold incredible reserves of hydrogen, and

water (which can be processed into hydrogen) can be found on planets, moons, and comets as ice or liquid water. Each fuel collector unit can process enough fuel to fill a 1 hullpoint tank in one day, provided the ship spends that day engaged in fueling operations—siphoning water, mining ice, or skimming gas giant cloud-tops. Note that a ship trying to fill several hundred hull points of fuel tanks will take months to completely fuel with only one fuel collector system.

Large ships should carry several fuel collectors to fuel in a reasonable amount of time.

Lab Section (PL 6)

The lab section consists of a small number of offices, laboratories, and conference rooms suited for various types of scientific work. Four scientists or technicians can work comfortably in this space, and as many as a dozen can use it with significant crowding. General-purpose instruments and recording devices are also included.

An Ordinary-quality mainframe (see Chapter 10 of the ALTERNITY Player’s Handbook) is included in the cost of this system. It contains databases on the broad skills of Physical Science, Life Science, and Technical Science.

Reentry Capsule (PL 6)

A reentry capsule is an emergency escape device with room for two people. After ejection, the capsule has enough air and survival supplies for ten days. It drifts through space, or it can de-orbit and make planetfall if it was launched within 10,000 kilometers of a planet’s surface.

Sick Bay (PL 6)

This is a small shipboard hospital with care and treatment facilities for up to four in-patients. Buying the sick bay multiple times increases its capacity accordingly, so a 10-hull point sick bay can accommodate 20 beds. The sick bay includes a small operating theater, a reasonable supply of medical equipment and supplies, and constant vitals monitoring for all patients.

The sick bay qualifies as a facility of Ordinary (–1 step), Good (–2 step) or Amazing (–3 step bonus) quality for Medical Sciencetreatment or surgery skill checks at Progress Levels 6, 7, and 8, respectively.

Workshop (PL 6)

The workshop is a small but lavishly equipped machine shop for repair work, light manufacturing, and special fabrication jobs. A shipboard workshop makes it possible to attempt repairs of mortal damage in space, but any such attempts suffer a +3 step penalty.

Accumulator (PL 7)

100 The accumulator stores extra power points. Each hull point can store up to 10 excess power points, which can be allocated or spent just like normal power points in the power distribution phase. However, once the accumulator’s stored power points have been allocated, they’re unavailable until the accumulator is recharged in a subsequent power distribution phase.

Accumulators are useful for providing ships with quick one-shot recharges on high-powered weapons or extra power for maneuverability in an emergency situation.

Autocargo (PL 7)

Consisting of automated cargo loading and handling machinery, the autocargo system provides service to cargo holds, bays, or spaces totaling 6 hull points or less. It allows the rapid loading or unloading of cargo, handling heavy or awkward loads with ease.

Boarding Pod (PL 7)

The boarding pod is a small assault module equipped with gravity induction engine powered by a large lanthanide cell. It can hold ten troops in normal gear, or six troops in body tanks. The boarding pod has an acceleration of 0.5, a Maneuverability Class of 2, and enough power to sustain flight for up to 10 game rounds.

This means that it’s generally used against targets that aren’t maneuvering or accelerating any more. The pod can be “flown” remotely from the launching ship, or controlled by a pilot with the Vehicle Ops-spacecraft skill. It has 5/5/2 stun/wound/mortal points, Good toughness, and 1d4 points of external armor against all types of damage.

The power cells can provide 6 hours of flight and up to 48 hours of life support.

Fabrication Facility (PL 7)

This facility is a large, automated workshop with a manufacturing computer that holds design specs for thousands of useful devices and critical machinery. Virtually any part or component of the ship can be duplicated by the fabrication facility. Not only is the facility useful for creating special-purpose tools, furniture, or repair parts, it also makes possible the repair of mortal damage to the ship without returning to a shipyard.

Ordnance Transfer System (PL 7)

The ship is equipped with a special airlock and ordnance transfer crane or tractor beam. It can reload external missile racks, bomb racks, or ordnance cells in d4 x 10 minutes, instead of d4 hours. Ammo carriers are often fitted with this system to permit faster reloading of expended missiles and bombs.

Security Suite (PL 7)

The ultimate in shipboard security, this suite of protective devices includes video, sound, and thermal monitoring of all protected compartments by surveillance computers. All doors in the protected area are heavy-duty armored security hatches that can be set to open by key card, retinal scan, or positive control from the ship’s security center. Finally, each security suite purchased includes four weapon cupolas that can be used to mount any ranged or heavy weapon from the Player’s Handbook in strategic locations such as airlocks, passage intersections, or vital compartments.

While it’s possible to protect the entire hull of a large system with security suites, it’s more cost-efficient to create “security zones” or “security decks” to guard vital areas or control access throughout the ship, leaving most of the hull with routine security measures and monitoring.

When the pod reaches its target, it uses a set of mechan-

ical grapples to fasten itself to the enemy’s hull. It doesn’t

Stabilizer (PL 7)

have any facilities for cutting into the enemy ship, but the

marines on board normally carry shaped charges or laser torches to make their entrance. This normally takes 1d4 rounds, although it depends a lot on what kind of gear the boarders have and what they’re trying to get into.

Evac System (PL 7)

This is a system of four escape pods, designed to serve a large ship. Each has a capacity of 10 people, carries 100 man-days of air and supplies, and can sustain up to 6 hours of independent flight with an acceleration of 1. An automated landing program can bring the pod to a planet’s surface if there isn’t a pilot available.

The system can be expanded for larger ships. Each additional hull point provides two more life pods, at a cost of 50,000. Most warships and liners carry enough evacuation pods to provide all hands a chance to escape a major catastrophe in space.

The stabilizer is a modification to the ship’s engine system that increases its maneuverability. A ship equipped with a powered stabilizer increases its base Maneuverability Class by 1 point. For example, a fighter with a stabilizer is Maneuverability Class 5, not 4.

The stabilizer requires 5 percent of the hull, and 1 power point per hull point of the system. For example, a corvette of 80 hull points requires a stabilizer of 4 hull points, consuming 4 points of power.

Holofield Bay (PL 8)

The ultimate in personal entertainment, the holofield bay uses virtual matter and holoprojection technology to create fully immersive virtual reality. Sometimes the verisimilitude of the setting is not completely perfect, but it’s good enough for extremely realistic training (–2 step bonus to Teach skill checks made with holofield bay classrooms) and just having fun.

Nanomanufacture Bay (PL 8)

The final step in shipboard manufacturing and repair technology, the nanomanufacture bay combines many of the fabrication facility’s machines with a nanite tank—a large fluid-filled chamber in which a matrix of microscopic devices can construct virtually anything imaginable from the crudest raw materials. The ship’s engineer gains a –1 step bonus to repair checks to repair mortal damage, despite the fact that a shipyard is normally required to effect such repairs.

Table 5-17: Hangars and Miscellaneous Installations