Blanche class Medium Merchant (Caramelles Kingdom):

The Caramelles Kingdom builds a number of civilian ships although they are better know for their warship classes. In reality, the Kingdom builds far more merchant ships than they build warships. Such ships operate inside of the Kingdom and are also sold outside of the Kingdom. Being relatively cheap, these ships are quite popular. Within the Consortium, these ships are not as popular as they are in other areas of space due to the fact that companies which trade with the Kingdom are not allowed to have military contracts within the Consortium. The Human Alliance and many Independent Defense Forces within the Consortium similarly will not used merchant lines which trade with the Kingdom.

The merchant designs built by the Kingdom require larger crews than those produced by companies within the Consortium. This is partially due to a comparative lack of automation. In addition, due to the education standards within the Kingdom, these ships have a larger officer compliment than merchant vessels operated outside of the Kingdom. When these ships are operated outside the Kingdom, they commonly cut officer compliment by around half. As far as the Kingdom itself, their own merchant crews do not operate outside of the Kingdom and trade outside the Kingdom is done through independent traders. The Kingdom does not allow any merchant hulls not of Kingdom manufacture for internal trade.

The Caramelles Kingdom manufactures both a medium and large merchant vessel designs in yards scattered around the star systems of the Kingdom. Most cargo is carried in the medium class vessels but certain types of cargo requires larger hulls. The Kingdom does not manufacture a smaller merchant "tramp freighter" type vessel. The Kingdom does not operate such vessels within their territory due to their comparatively light cargo carrying capability and there is not enough outside interest to support the manufacturing of smaller vessels.

These vessels come in three different configuration as far as weaponry. The unarmed version carries no weaponry of any kind. This makes up about eighty percent of the merchant ships operated within the Kingdom. Most of the rest are the lightly armed version of the vessel armed with six combination particle beam and mini-missile launcher. Finally, there is the military version which adds four combination heavy electromagnetic point defense rail and mini-missile batteries, two long range missile batteries, and military class variable shields. There are operated with military crews and make up only a tiny percentage of vessels operated within the Kingdom. The lightly armed version is the most popular version sold outside the Kingdom although all three versions are available.

There are two different alternate configurations of the basic hull type. One acts as a "liner" with a maximum passenger capability of five thousand passengers. These ships are fairly cramped compared to most liner classes and are not designed for luxury tours but transport from system to system. During times of war, these ships are used as troop transports. The Kingdom does not operate any military transport ships beyond a number of supply ships and instead relies on merchant vessels. The military can any press merchant vessels into military service. The second is a military repair ship which has a number of machine shops. Even though primarily repair ships, these ships also have a small medical center. These ships have four operating rooms, five hundred medical beds, and one hundred stasis chambers. They lack some of the advanced cloning facilities which Human Alliance and Consortium hospital facilities have.

As with most merchant designs, the merchant is powered by a fusion plants instead of anti-matter reactors. While larger than anti-matter plants, these power plants are extremely reliable and less expensive to both refuel and repair than an anti-matter power system. These fusion reactors need to be refueled every sixteen years. There ships are relatively slow with a top speed of two and a half light years per hour when traveling in faster than light space.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and weapon range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: Blanche class Medium Freighter
Vehicle Type: Medium Freighter

Crew:	Medium Freighter	85 (15 Officers and 60 Ordinary Crew / Enlisted)
	Liner	120 (25 Officers and 95 Ordinary Crew / Enlisted)
	Repair Ship	1,800 (65 Officers and 1,735 Ordinary Crew / Enlisted)
Passengers:	Medium Freighter	100
	Liner	5,000
	Repair Ship	500

Vehicles:

Light Cargo Shuttles (Provision for cargo transport, not always carried)

M.D.C. By Location:

Standard:

Military:

Triple P-Beam /Mini-Missile Batteries (8):	200 each	200 each
E-Mag Rail Guns/Mini-Missile Batteries (4):	None	200 each
Long Range Missile Batteries (2):	None	600 each
Outer Hull (40 x 40 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	100	100
Inner Hull (40 x 20 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	75	75
[1] Bridge:	4,000	4,000
[2] Main Engines (2):	6,000 each	6,000 each
[3] Main Body:	28,000	28,000
[4] Force Field:	5,000 (Regular)	3,000 side (18,000 total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s hull. This ship does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the freighter out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[4] Standard ship shields are not variable regenerate at the rate of 5% (250 M.D.C.) per melee round. Military versions carry variable shields (all could be combined in one shield) and shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (900 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Most have merchant class shields that allows the ship to travel up to 20 percent of the speed of light maximum due to civilian shields. Some have military class shields and can reach 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.5 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 250 mph (402 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 2.5 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about two years worth of supplies on board for the small crew but normally does not operate for that long without resupply.

Statistical Data:
Length: 880 feet (268.22 meters)
Height: 280 feet (85.34 meters)
Width: 300 feet (91.44 meters)
Weight: 308,650 Tons (280,000 metric tons)
Power System: Advanced Fusion with a 16 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo:
Cargo Vessel: Can carry up to 250,000 tons (226,800 metric tons) of cargo in addition to crew’s supplies. Each enlisted crew member or passenger have a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items.
Liner: Can carry up to 50,000 tons (45,359 metric tons) of cargo in addition to crew’s supplies. Each enlisted crew member or passenger have a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items.
Repair Ship: Can carry up to 100,000 tons (90,720 metric tons) of cargo in addition to crew’s supplies. Each enlisted crew member or passenger have a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items.
Market Cost:
Cargo Vessel: 1.0 Billion credits (Military versions about 1.5 billion and non armed version about 800 million)
Liner: 1.2 Billion credits (Military versions about 1.8 billion and non armed version about 1.0 billion)
Repair Ship: 5.0 Billion credits (Military versions about 6.0 billion and non armed version about 4.0 billion)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: Carried on military versions of the vessel. Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship.) Whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Long range missiles do not have penalties to hit small targets, unlike cruise missiles, and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the modern CAF long range missile batteries although the actual battery is slightly smaller.
Maximum Effective Range: Long Range Missile range is 3,400 miles (5,470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,897,000 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Fusion warheads inflict 2D4x100 M.D.C. each.)
Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) missiles per battery, per melee attack.
Payload: 384 total, 192 long range missiles per battery.
Four (4) 40 mm Electromagnetic Rail Gun/Mini Missile Batteries: Carried on military versions of the vessel. Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. Comparatively heavy weapons, the rail guns fire a heavy 40 mm high density projectile and have excellent range. Each turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapons are mounted around the ship for point defense. The rail gun still fires projectiles at incredible velocities compared to rail guns on Rifts Earth and projectiles are fired from rail guns at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Missile launchers can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Rail guns have a range of 12 miles (19.3 km) through atmosphere and 1,200 miles (1,930 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Rail Cannon inflicts 3D6x10+30 M.D. for a 10 round burst. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.
Payload: Rail Cannon has 2,000 Rounds (200 Bursts) each cannon, has forty-eight (48) mini-missiles at each launcher (192 total, can carry potentially several times more in storage holds).
Eight (8) Triple Particle Beam/Mini Missile Batteries: These mounts are similar to the rail gun mounts with the rail gun replaced by a triple particle beam. While damage is similar, range is less that the rail gun mounts. Each turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapons are mounted around the ship for point defense. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Missile launchers can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Particle beams have a range of 8 miles (13 km) through atmosphere and 400 miles (640 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Triple particle beam inflicts 3D6x10 M.D. per burst. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.
Payload: Effective unlimited for the particle beam mounts, has forty-eight (48) mini-missiles at each launcher (384 total, can carry potentially several times more in storage holds.)

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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