Dagger-Class Patrol Corvette

The Dagger is a corvette class gunship/bomber by Orion Arms Industries. While OAI does mostly exclusively military contracts and is the Terran Protectorate's primary starship designer and supplier, the Dagger was one of the few cases where the company was allowed to sell both a military and "civilian" version. 

The military version is used as a patrol corvette and tactical bomber. It is a little ship designed to knock out bigger targets and to defend Protectorate territory. While usually the Stellar Navy requests a specific ship and then Orion Arms designs it, in this case OAI designed the ship and then pitched it to the military. It fills the gap between pinnace and frigate, with long-range capabilities a pinnace does not have, and a nimbleness, flexibility and speed not seen in most frigates. In fact, the Dagger was designed to keep pace with fighters for joint operations. It is also economical and easy to mass produce. 

The military version is armed with a nose-mounted missile launcher capable of firing anti-ship torpedoes. The nose has an internal magazine for four, typically Halberd Anti-Ship Missiles, or Indra Tactical Thermonuclear EM-Guided Bombs. The "civilian" version has had the launcher remove and the nose turned into extra cargo space, though some mercs have a heavy launcher built back into it.

Both versions are armed with two forward particle beam cannons, six 180mm missile tubes with an internal magazine of 24 Starfire-6 AMRAAM ship-to-ship missiles, and three light ion turrets for point defense.

The military version also has more advanced electro countermeasures and both have excellent sensor suites.

The ship is short on luxuries, with bunk beds built right into the walls of the central hallway. But long trips for its crew of seven to 12 are usually meant to be taken in stasis. It has a range of 30 light years, and a max FTL speed of 400C.

The ship is popular among mercenary groups consisting of former Terran Protectorate naval personnel and privateers flying under the Terran Protectorate letter of marque. 

While popular in the Terran Protectorate, sales have suffered in the Free Colonies because of its close association with the Stellar Navy. However, Bifrost has bought a number of them. While the Free Colonies and the Protectorate are on friendly terms, most Free Colonies spacers turn their nose up at a design that's screams Stellar Navy. Bifrost, with close ties to the Protectorate, being the main exception. This also hurts it with alien buyers as well, but the market inside the Protectorate and among Protectorate-aligned mercenary groups is still brusque enough to keep the design very profitable for Orion Arms. 

There is a command reconnaissance variant with improved sensors and communications, as well as improved electro countermeasures. On the CR model, the ion cannons have been replaced with gauss auto cannons to make up for the additional energy requirements.

Model: Dagger Patrol Corvette

Class: Patrol Gunship/Bomber

Crew: 12 standard, 7 with A.I. support (4 if turrets are unmanned). Can carry a platoon of 40 soldiers short distances or in stasis (the additional cryotubes do not come standard).

M.D.C. by Location

Ion cannon or auto cannon turrets (3) -- 175 each

Particle beam cannons (2) -- 250 each

Medium-range missile launchers (2) -- 200 each

Torpedo Launcher/Nose -- 700

Sensor Bar -- 100

*Primary Thrusters (3) -- 300 each

Secondary Thrusters (outrigger mounted) -- 150 each

Primary Hatches/Airlocks (2) -- 400 each

**Reinforced Pilot's Compartment/bridge -- 500

***Main Body -- 3000

*The Dagger has a redundant and decentralized thruster system. Destroying the primary thrusters will only reduce maximum speed by 50% and the ship will still be able to go FTL. All thrusters must be destroyed to completely immobilize the vessel.

** Destroying the Bridge is likely to kill the command crew and leave the vessel with the most minimal of controls from the engine room. All flight bonuses will be lost and the impromptu pilot will only have half their attacks.

***Depleting the M.D.C. of the Main Body will leave the vessel a floating wreck, with multiple hull breaches and no power. If the ship is reduced to -500 M.D.C. it will explode, doing 6D6x10 to everything within a 500 ft. radius.

Speed

Maximum Sublight Speed: 0.15C (15% of the speed of light)

Maximum Acceleration/Deceleration Rate: 9.5Gs per melee round.

FTL Speeds: 400C (1 light year every 22 hours)

Top Atmospheric Maneuvering Speed: (Mach 6 (can achieve escape velocity on a full engine burn).

Statistical Data:

Height: 44 feet, 6 inches (13.6m)

Length: 270 feet (82.3m)

Width: 92 feet, 9 inches (28.36m)

Mass (empty): 1,620 tons.

Cargo: 25 tons with torpedo launcher, 75 without

Power Plant: Two Grimbler Chain Fusion Reactors powered by Helium-3

FTL: Negative Mass Drive (Military-Grade NMD-400)

Range: One month of consumables, or 30 light years. Range can be doubled at the cost of 10 tons of cargo space.

Cost: 50 million credits for a new vessel, requires military grade weapons permit (class 1). 55 million for command reconnaissance (CR) variant. Paramilitary model, without torpedoes cost 40 million and does not come with an A.I., requires class 2 weapons permit

Weapon Systems

1. Torpedo Launcher: This nose-mounted torpedo tube is the Dagger's primary means of taking down bigger ships. It is designed to fly in close, evading enemy countermeasures and then firing the missiles into the enemy at vital locations. Unlike most missiles, these can be targeted to stripe specific points on the enemy ship, if the Dagger is not being successfully jammed. This weapon is not available on the civilian version, and reloads are hard to come by on the black market.

Primary Purpose: Anti-Starship

Mega-Damage: Varies with torpedo type, typically armed with Halberd Anti-Ship Missiles (4D4x100 M.D. to a 50-foot radius) or Indra tactical Thermonuclear EM-Guided Bombs (4D6x100 M.D. to a 100-foot radius)

Effective Range: Halberds -- 4,000 miles, Indra -- 1,000 miles.

Rate of Fire: Twice per melee round. Can only fire one torpedo at a time.

Bonuses: The Halberd is a smart missile that is +5 to strike, +2 to dodge with 2 attacks per melee round (will continue to try and hit the enemy ship until destroyed or until it runs out of fuel (reached max range). The Indra is guided by EM identifier from the ship and has +4 to strike. Bonuses are in addition to those from targeting computer and weapons systems bonuses.

Payload: Four missiles.

2. 120mm Pulse Particle Beam Cannons (2): For use against targets of equal size or larger, these are long-range particle beam cannons fixed forward in the nose. They are high-powered, but have a slower firing rate.

Primary Purpose: Anti-starship

Mega-Damage: 2D4x100 per dual pulse blast.

Effective Range: 500 miles.

Rate of Fire: Three times per melee round.

Payload: Effectively unlimited.

3. Medium-Range Missile Launchers (2): The Dagger has two medium range missile launchers built under the primary cannons. Each launcher has three tubes and a 12-round internal magazine. These missiles are used to engage enemy vessels, destroy incoming missiles, and bombard stationary ground and space targets. They can also be used to deter enemy fighter attacks.

Primary Purpose: Assault.
Mega-Damage: Varies with missile type, typically Starfire-6 Armor Piercing Explosive (APE) missiles that do 3D6x10 M.D. each.

Effective Range: Varies with missile type, generally about 200 miles (half in atmosphere).

Rate of Fire: Individually, or in volleys of 2, 3, or 6 (both launchers firing simultaneously, counts as 1 attack).

Payload: 24 missiles, 12 per launcher. Typically one reload for each launcher is carried into battle. A trained weapons engineer can reload one launcher in 1 minute. Untrained personnel take twice as long.

4. Ion Turrets (3): These defensive turrets are used to engage enemy fighters and other frigates and pinnaces, and to shoot down incoming missiles. They are operated from a gun deck behind the bridge. The top turret covers the rear and sides, and each side turret can engage targets above, below, and to the front and back. These are replaced with gauss auto cannons on the CR variant.

Primary Purpose: Defense.

Mega-Damage: 4D4x10 M.D. per blast.

Effective Range: 10 miles.

Rate of Fire: Equal to hand-to-hand attacks of the gunner.

Bonuses: +2 to strike, in addition to normal targeting and weapon system bonuses.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

5. Auto cannon turrets (optional, 3): The Command Reconnaissance Variant has electromagnetic auto cannons (gauss cannons) that fire a single tungsten dart. They have increased power, but reduced range and a limited payload. These replace the standard ion turrets.

Primary Purpose: Defense.

Mega-Damage: 5D6x10 M.D. per shot. Single shot only.

Effective Range: 5 miles.

Rate of Fire: Equal to hand-to-hand attacks of the gunner.

Bonuses: +2 to strike, in addition to normal targeting and weapon system bonuses.

Payload: 200 rounds per cannon. It takes 10 minutes to reload, usually done outside of combat.

6. Electro countermeasures: comes with a standard ECM suite with a range of 50,000 miles, and the ability to fire off hydrogen flares to confound heat-seeking missiles (50% chance of decoying incoming volleys). The CR variant has an extended ECM jamming range of 75,000 miles, provides the radar intercept officer (RIO) with a +10% bonus to ECM roles and also has four electromagnetic decoys (75% chance enemy will lock onto decoy instead of the actual ship...enemy will not know which target they are shooting at until they fire) that are live for 15 seconds each. The decoys are the size of a beach ball and cost about 10,000 credits each to replace.

7. Sensors: The Dagger's short-range sensors have a range of 100,000 miles and include all standard tactical sensors. Long-Range Sensors are limited to digital telescopes and electromagnetic field detectors with a range of .5 AU (48 million miles).

The CR variant has short-range sensors of up to 150,000 miles, and has digital telescopes, EMF detectors and mass detectors with a range of 1 A.U. (distance from the Earth to the Sun).

8. Bonuses: The Dagger's pilot gets a +3 to dodge any ship pinnace size and up (in addition to normal bonuses and penalties relative to size, see Phase World Sourcebook). However, the tight architecture makes it very difficult to modify, with a -15% to make major modifications and a -10% to all jury-rig rolls.