Avenger
Gunship
The Xintrin Avenger is a powerful, gun-heavy light armored transport used by the Xintrin Merchant Guild fleet as a scout, electronic warfare, and escort vessel.
The design is a unique Xintrin-human collaboration built during the Xintrin’s war with the murderous Berylan...an alien species that believes only they have the right to exist. Since the Xintrin had designed even their combat vessels to be trading and cargo ships first, they needed something that could be built fast and with some punch. A human corporation stepped in and offered to create a new design, in return for some Xintrin technological secrets and the rights to distribute a powered down light transport version of the vessel to the human market.
The Xintrin won the war, and the ship became popular in Xintrin and human space.
The military variant, shown here, is fast, armed to the teeth, and utilizes cutting edge technology. While the military version has a crew of five, it can be flown by one person. It has four powerful microwave lasers, two pulsed heavy plasma cannons, a light dual microwave laser defense turret and four short-range missile batteries. It also has a powerful jamming suite and excellent sensors and a low electromagnetic signature. It is faster than most Xintrin ships, though the speed is average for a ship it’s class (Xintrin ships are notoriously slow). Its armor is moderate. It can carry 40 tons of cargo or two platoons of infantry or one platoon of infantry in powered armor.
The civilian variant, most popular among independent Xintrin merchants, only has two microwave lasers in the front and the turret. The missiles and the plasma cannons are removed. The hard points are still there, though, and many humans illegally modify the ship with new weapons to replace them.
The Avenger is the smallest ship in the Xintrin military. The Xintrin do not believe in space fighters, since they cannot carry cargo. The Xintrin rank cargo space as equal to engines in importance, and the idea of a tiny spaceship with no cargo that guzzles fuel and can’t take a hit is, to them, one of the most useless ideas in space-faring history.
The Xintrin, by the way, hate the name “Avenger” that humans have given it. It’s a mistake in translation. The real name is the “Seeker of Restitution” which is an entirely different concept. Everything in Xintrin culture revolves around making a profit, and a common Xintrin saying is “there is no profit in vengeance.”
Model: HX Joint Project “Seeker of Restitution” Gunship
Class: Light Military Transport
Crew: 5; commander, pilot, sensor/communications operator, gunner, and engineer. May also be assigned a deck officer to oversee cargo. Can be flown by one person (-15% to piloting and read sensory equipment rolls). It can carry up to 20 additional passengers/soldiers for short durations (10 days maximum).
M.D.C. by Location
Forward microwave lasers (4) – 100 each
Missile launchers (4) – 80 each
Wings (2) – 350 each
Wing-tip plasma cannons (2) – 100 each
*Negative mass field generators (2) – 250 each
High-powered antenna – 40
Microwave laser turret – 150
Secondary thrusters (2) – 200 each
Primary thruster – 400
Armored main hatch – 120
**Cockpit – 250
***Main body – 1,100
*Destroying one negative mass field generator will reduce FTL speed by half. Destroying both will prevent the ship from going faster-than-light. Hitting the field generators requires a called shot with a -4 penalty to strike, and can only be targeted by enemies directly in front of the ship.
**The pilot of the Avenger sits in the cockpit forward of the rest of the crew. Destroying the cockpit will likely kill the pilot and will send the ship drifting out of control. Targeting the cockpit requires a called shot with a -2 penalty to strike.
***Depleting the MDC of the main body leaves the vessel adrift and activates the emergency rescue beacon. Reducing the M.D.C. to -300 causes the vessel to explode, doing 4D6x10 M.D. to a 100-foot radius.
Speed
Maximum Sublight Speed: .20 C, or 20% of the speed of light.
Maximum Acceleration/Deceleration Rate: 8 Gs per melee round
Maximum FTL Speed: Cx400 (a little more than light year per day)
Maximum Atmospheric Maneuvering Speed: Mach 6. Can attain escape velocity on a full engine burn, with about a 50% loss of maneuverability.
Statistical Data
Height: 23.5 feet
Length: 130 feet
Width: 90 feet
Mass: 220 tons
Cargo: 40 tons
Power Plant: Xintrin Fusion Reactor
FTL System: Negative Mass Field Projectors
Range: 40 light years if no additional consumables are carried. Range can be tripled if cargo bay is used for extra fuel, air, food and water.
Market Cost: The military version is 25 million credits. The civilian version (minus two forward lasers, all missile launchers, the ECM suite and both plasma cannons) goes for about 8 million new and 4 million used.
Weapon Systems
1. Forward Microwave Laser Cannons (4): These main guns fire concentrated beams of microwaves at enemy ships, causing explosive evaporation as solid matter is transformed into plasma. They also cause surges and sluggishness in electrical equipment. Non-military vessels without hardened circuits (all military ships have hardened circuits) are -10% to all ship control rolls (such as piloting and sensor rolls) for the next 1D4 minutes and are -2 to initiative, dodge and dog fighting rolls after being hit with this weapon. The effects are not cumulative and there is no saving throw. These guns only fire straight ahead and are controlled by the pilot.
Primary Purpose: Assault
Mega-Damage: 2D4x10 M.D. for each blast. Can fire blasts from individual cannons, dual cannons (4D4x10 M.D.) or all four cannons at once (8D4x10 M.D.). Individual, dual or quad shots all count as one melee attack.
Rate of Fire: Each cannon can fire four times per melee round.
Payload: Effectively unlimited.
2. Pulsed Heavy Plasma Cannons (2): These wing-mounted weapons are designed to let the Avenger attack larger sub-capitol vessels. They are equal to the secondary cannons on a frigate or destroyer, but have a very low rate of fire. They get their tremendous damage by unleashing several concentrated pulses of plasma within microseconds of each other.
Primary Purpose: Anti-ship
Mega-Damage: 1D4x100 each. A dual blast does 2D4x100.
Rate of Fire: Each cannon can fire twice per melee round. They cannot be fired two attacks in a row due to energy drain and heat build-up.
Penalties: -2 to strike star fighters or ships less than 100 feet long across their longest axis.
Payload: Effectively unlimited.
3. Microwave Laser Turret: This turret uses microwave lasers calibrated to do pure damage for maximum efficiency. It can rotate 360 degrees and has 30 degrees of elevation. The turret is controlled from the gunner’s station, a bit aft of the cockpit.
Primary Purpose: Defense
Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 M.D. per dual blast.
Rate of Fire: Equal to hand-to-hand attacks of the gunner.
Payload: Effectively unlimited.
4. Short-range Missile Launchers (4): These high-capacity missile launchers allow the Avenger to intercept enemy missiles, engage high-speed fighter craft, and cleanse a combat landing zone of enemy personnel. The launchers are located under the wing domes on a rotary launch drum that cycles new missiles forward after the others have been fired.
Primary Purpose: Defense
Mega-Damage: Xintrin short-range armor piercing plasma (APP) missiles do 3D4x10 M.D. each
Rate of Fire: Each launcher can fire missiles individually, in pairs, or in volleys of 3, 4 or 6. Multiple launchers can be fired together increasing the volley size to 8, 12, and 24. Each missile launcher can be used twice per melee round.
Payload: Each launcher carries a load of 12 missiles, for a total of 48. One additional load for each launcher is usually carried in storage..
5. Electronic Warfare Suite: The Avenger carries advanced electronic warfare equipment that can jam all enemy radio communications in a 200,000-mile diameter globe. It also has a pulsed graviton and electromagnetic wave emitter that distorts an enemy’s ability to use electromagnetic sensors and mass detectors to identify or even get an accurate count of nearby ships. The emitter affects a 100-mile diameter globe. Anyone trying to identify what kinds of ships are in that globe, or how many ships there are, must make a read sensory equipment roll at -40%. A successful roll means they were not fooled by the distortion. A failed roll means they can only pick up a senseless cloud of ever-changing mass readings and electromagnetic fields. Of course, turning the emitter on alerts every ship in long-range sensor range that something strange is going on in that vicinity of space, so Avenger crews generally only use the emitter when they know the enemy is aware of their presence.
Avionics: The short-range sensors that include LADAR, radar, and thermographic sensors have a range of about 250,000 miles. Long-range sensors utilizing mass detectors and electromagnetic field detectors are powerful for a ship this size, and have a range of about 20 million miles. Some ships rigged for customs patrol have molecular sniffers with a range of about 200 miles.
