Duende-Class Gunship

The Duende-class gunship is a combat vessel designed and manufactured by the Volo shipyard. It was an attempt to get Volo onto the shipbuilding market and increase revenue and jobs for the planet. The plan was to market it as a long-range patrol and defense vessel for the outer colonies of the Terran Protectorate, who are often targeted by pirates, rogue mercenaries and the like. There were less than a dozen manufactured before the outbreak of the Second Interstellar War at Volo itself, but plans for the ship were transmitted to other production facilities throughout human space, though it is still a rare vessel.

The ship is tough, durable and well-armed. It is also designed to travel long distances, with the plan being that it could escort new colony vessels and their colonists to new worlds where there would be no help from the Terran Protectorate that could reach them in a timely fashion.

Because it can be used for long-range missions, it is well-equipped for duration flights, with small cabins for up to eight crew members and two larger cabins; one for the captain and one for any important passengers. Those cabins can also be converted into four-person barracks if more crew members are needed.

It also has a state-of-the-art ship's A.I., powerful weapons and advanced armor. Its speed is respectable and its sensors are slightly better than standard. But it has a tight architecture, making modifications more difficult than your typical light or medium transport.

However, they use market parts from a variety of ships, so that they could be easily replaced (a design feature believed to be necessary if they were going to be operating at long distances away from the suppliers at Volo).

Model: Duende-X1

Class: Pinnace

Crew: Two to eight, sleeper tubes for 12. Can be flown by an individual with A.I. assistance.

M.D.C. by Location

Particle beam cannons (4) -- 150 each

60mm rail gun turrets (2) -- 200 each

Wings/Waste heat collectors (2) -- 400 each

Missile launchers (2) -- 200 each

Secondary engines (4) -- 180 each

Main thruster -- 650

Reinforced hatches (2) -- 250 each

*Nose sensor cluster -- 150

Reinforced pilot's compartment -- 500

**Main Body -- 2000

*Destroying the nose sensor cluster will disable the short-range sensors and the ship's targeting computer, eliminating all combat bonuses except for the turrets' targeting systems.

**Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will disable the vessel, leaving it a floating wreck. There are eight, two-man escape pods located under the crew quarters hidden in the dorsal hull and the sleeper pods can be ejected and serve as escape pods as well. The escape pods have life support for 48 hours and the ejected sleeper pods can sustain the individual inside for one year on their independent power supplies. All have powerful emergency beacons that activate automatically upon launch.

Speed

Maximum Sublight Speed: 0.15 C (15% of the speed of light, takes two days of constant acceleration to attain)

Maximum Acceleration/Deceleration: 7Gs per melee round.

Maximum FTL Speed: 365C

Top Atmospheric Speed: Mach 8, can attain escape velocity with minimal maneuvering (-20% to piloting rolls)

Statistical Data

Height: 39 feet

Length: 183.5 feet

Width: 109.25 feet

Mass: 190 tons

Cargo: 100 tons

Power-Plant: 16-ounce Anti-matter Pulse Drive

Range: Approximately 150 light years.

Cost: 6 million credits. A Class 2 weapons permit is required to legally operate one in the Free Colonies and Terran Protectorate space.

Weapon Systems

1. Forward Particle Beam Cannons (4): These are the main, hard-hitting weapons of the Duende and are meant to threaten pirates, raiders and can cause a frigate or destroyer to take pause. They can be fire-linked or fired individually or in pairs. They are a large tax on the power supply, limiting their firing rate.

Primary Purpose: Anti-starship

Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 M.D. each, 4D6x10 M.D. when fired in pairs, and 8D6x10 M.D. when all four are fired.

Effective Range: 50 miles in space, 25 miles in atmosphere. Multiply range x 10 against a stationary target.

Rate of Fire: Each cannon can be fired four times per melee round.

Payload: Effectively unlimited.

2. Medium-Range Missile Launchers (2): These are standard medium-range missile launchers, typically loaded with H.E.A.P. rounds (high explosive armor piercing). Good for attacking enemy ships or defending against incoming missile attacks.

Primary Purpose: Assault.

Mega-Damage: Varies with missile type. Standard HEAPs are 3D6x10 M.D. each.

Effective range: 150 miles in space, 50 miles in atmosphere.

Rate of Fire: Can be fired individually or in volleys of 2, 4 or 8 (both launchers fired at once).

Payload: 12 missiles each. Reloads can be carried in the cargo bay and take a trained weapons engineer or starship mechanic 10 minutes to load.

3. 60mm Double Barreled Rail Gun Turrets (2): These weapons fire a deadly stream of 60 millimeter depleted uranium rounds at close-range range targets. Each turret has an independent artificial gravity generator to compensate for combat maneuvering and a targeting system that tracks with the gunner's body movements in the gunner's seat.

Primary Purpose: Defense.

Mega-Damage: 3D6x10 M.D. for each 20-round burst. Generally only fired in bursts.

Effective Range: 5 miles in space, 2.5 miles in atmosphere.

Bonus: +2 to strike in addition to standard targeting computer bonuses.

Payload: Two, 2,000 round belts supply each gun barrel for a total of 4,000 rounds (200 bursts total). An extra pair of belts can be stored directly under each turret, allowing automated reloading in one melee round. Otherwise, extra belts can be stored as cargo and will take 2 minutes for a trained mechanic or weapons engineer to retrieve and reload.

Sensors: The Duende avionics package has long-range sensors consisting of mass detectors, electromagnetic field detectors and a digital telescope with a range of 1 A.U. (about 96 million miles), and short-range sensors including radar, LADAR and thermal emission detectors with a range of about 100,000 miles. It also has a standard electrocountermeasures package that can jam targeting lock-ons and radio transmissions in a 100 mile globe (standard contested ECM roll required).

Amenities: eight 10x10x10 cabins on the upper deck of the rear (above the cargo hold), two 12x10x10 cabins forward of the cargo hold on the lower rear deck, a galley kitchen and eating area, 12 sleeper tubes, and a Ship's Artificial Neural Database Intelligence (S.A.N.D.I.) capable of diagnosing ship malfunctions, translating most commonly known languages, and equipped with detailed navigation maps of known space, historical files for most known species, ship identification database, psychological behavioral profiling routine, and knowledge of interstellar laws for most major species (Human, Xintrin, Arkhon and Mogg'Theran). Interfaces with crew either through terminals, speakers or programmable holographic interface.

Bonuses and Penalties: All standard ship bonuses, plus +2 to dodge, +2 to dog-fighting maneuvers against light transports or larger vessels (no bonus against fighters), +5% to all repairs, but a -10% to all modification rolls, and modifications take 50% longer to perform due to the tightly designed internal layout. Also equipped with a fast-start power up system that allows the power plant to go from standby (cold) to full power in 15 seconds (most ships take twice as long). In addition, the SANDI has counter-intrusion programming to prevent or isolate both wireless and internal hacking attempts.