Profitable-Class
Trade Cruiser
The trade cruiser is the perfect example of Xintrin shipbuilding and star-faring philosophy. The Profitable-Class is the Xintrin ship-of-the-line and the backbone of their military. Not because it’s any good at combat, but because of its usefulness in trade due to its massive cargo capacity and its ability to defend itself from pirates and raiders.
At first glance, one can be excused for assuming that these nearly 1,300-foot long cruisers would be powerful combatants, just based off size alone. But they are actually almost entirely cargo space, with a relatively tiny crew.
The Profitable Trade Cruiser is the ideal ship in the minds of the Xintrin. It has massive cargo capacity, high-technology and a good weapons load out, but unfortunately it still handles like a cargo vessel; slow and with low maneuverability. To mitigate this weakness, the Xintrin build heavily armored shields on its flanks to protect the cargo section, and in battle their ships form up in tight formations designed to maximize armor and fields of fire.
Unlike the more agile Terran and Arkhon warships, which perform a large amount of maneuvering, slashing attacks and broadsides, the Xintrin ships prefer to fight a long-range battle and hammer foes down with large, rigid formations.
This means that the more ships involved in a battle, the more an advantage the Xintrin tend to have...however, individually, their cruisers have trouble holding their own against other ships of the cruiser class.
Most of the Profitable’s armaments are aimed at discouraging smaller raiders and pirates. It bristles with light defense turrets. It’s only heavy weaponry are four anti-ship missile launchers and a pair of powerful forward plasma cannons. The crew is concentrated in the forward command module, rear engineering section and a small central shaft. Everything else is cargo space.
However, the ships are very cheap and easy to build, and their relatively small crews mean the Xintrin can field a lot of them quickly, as the Berylan learned the hard way during their ill-fated invasion of Xintrin space. Like most Xintrin ships, except the War Galleon, this ship is for sale, and has sold fairly well in the Empire of Many Suns.
Model: Profitable-Class Trade Cruiser
Class: Light cruiser (some have even
called it a “super-merchantman”)
Crew: 190, plus 12 flight crew and a security force of 40 troopers. Can carry 2,000 additional passengers or troops by converting the cargo pods into barracks.
Auxiliary Craft
6 small shuttles for personnel transport and cargo loading and off-loading
M.D.C. by Location
Point defense microwave turrets (12) – 200 each
Anti-ship missile launchers (4) – 500 each
*Flanking shields (6) – 5,000 each
Secondary thrusters (4) – 2,000 each
Main engines (2) – 6,000 each
Plasma cannons (2) – 2,500 each
**Negative Mass Projectors (2) – 10,000 each
Hangar bay – 5,000
***Command module – 12,000
***Engineering section – 16,000
Outer Hull Section (40 ft/12.2 m area) – 120
Inner Hull Section (40 ft/12.2 m area) -- 60
****Main body/Cargo Pods – 36,000 (12,000 for each pod)
*Any attack from the flanks (sides) automatically hit a flanking shield unless the enemy makes a called shot to hit the main body, engineering section or command module. The flanking shields are covered in laser-resistant armor and take ½ damage from all laser weapons.
** 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 -2 penalty to strike.
***The cruiser can only be shut down or destroyed if the command module AND engineering sections are destroyed. Depleting the main body alone will not do it unless the ship takes enough damage to be severed (see below)
****Simply depleting the main body of the ship will NOT shut it down or cause it to explode like most starships. The main body of this cruiser is only three cargo pods and a central shaft connecting the engineering section and hangar bay with the command module. The only way to destroy the ship by depleting the main body MDC is to reduce at least one pod to -3,000 M.D.C., which will utterly destroy that section and essentially severe the ship in half.
Speed
Maximum Sublight Speed: 0.15 C (15% of the speed of light)
Maximum Acceleration/Deceleration Rate: 4G’s per melee round.
FTL Speeds: Cx400 (a little more than a light-year per day)
Top Atmospheric Speed: 600 m.p.h. These massive ships regularly land on planets, but high speeds in thick atmosphere would tear them apart. Can attain escape velocity through gravity inversion, maintaining full maneuverability (what little the ship has)
Statistical Data
Height: 121 feet
Length: 1,297.5 feet
Width: 414.5 feet
Cargo: 180,000 tons. Each cargo pod can carry 60,000 tons.
Power plant: Quad fusion reactors
FTL System: Negative Mass Projectors
Range: 600 light years
Cost: Five billion credits each new, three billion credits for military surplus (sold in “like new” condition). Availability: Always one available for sale (even if the Xintrin have to pull it into dock, yank the crew and give it a new paint job).
Weapon Systems
1. Anti-Ship Missile Launchers (4): Each launcher is capable of firing a Xintrin Anti-ship missile, which is an armor-piercing smart missile with a heavy plasma warhead. These missiles are armored and emit a jamming pulse making it hard to destroy them (defenders are -4 to strike with all weapons, including other missiles).
Primary Purpose: Anti-star ship
Mega-Damage: 1D6x1,000 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Individually, in pairs or in volleys of 4. Each launcher can fire twice per melee round.
Bonuses: +5 to strike, in addition to normal ship targeting bonuses, +4 to dodge, two attacks per melee. Each missile has 200 M.D.C. and move at 270,000 m.p.h. (Mach 8 in atmosphere)
Payload: Two drums of 80 missiles feed the four launchers (one drum feeds two launchers), for a total of 160 missiles. Spares can be hauled in the cargo pods if the ships are mobilized for heavy combat.
2. Heavy Plasma Cannons (2): The primary energy weapons, these cannons fire powerful packets of plasma energy at extremely long-ranges for a plasma weapon. While range and damage are good, the rate of fire is low.
Primary Purpose: Assault
Mega-Damage: 2D4x1,000 M.D. each, 4D4x1,000 M.D. on a dual blast (Xintrin captains usually stagger their shots, however)
Rate of Fire: Each cannon can fire once per melee round
Payload: Effectively unlimited
3. Microwave Laser Defense Turrets (12): These turrets, controlled remotely from the ship’s gunnery deck, 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.
Primary Purpose: Defense
Mega-Damage: 4D4x10 M.D. per dual blast. The turrets only fire dual blasts.
Rate of Fire: Each turret can fire four times per melee round
Payload: Effectively unlimited
Avionics: The Profitable-Class Trade Cruiser has mass and electromagnetic field sensors with a 5 A.U. range, and digital telescope with a range of half a light-year. Its short-range sensors have a range of 300,000 miles.
