Concorde Escort Carrier:

The merchant vessel which was converted to the Concorde was originally an EZ-788 class Medium freighter. Of the EZ-XXX merchant design line, they are a relatively new. While not as fast as some of the faster cutter class merchant vessels, the EZ-700 and EZ-800 are among the faster civilian vessel designs in the Three Galaxies.

As far as the ship itself, the shipping line that originally operated it went bankrupt. It was seized by a planetary government for unpaid fees. There it languished for several years before being put up for auction. A mercenary company was able to buy the ship for only around half of what a new vessel might cost.

There was actually less bidding than one might expect because some maintenance and repair work was required before the ship could be made operational. The mercenary company already had the assets to make the repairs while most other interested parties would have to have paid a local firm to make the repairs.

From the beginning, the plan was to convert the merchant ship into an escort carrier. The mercenaries had been looking for a relatively fast merchant design to convert into an escort carrier. In fact, the EZ-700 and EZ-800 series of designs are around the same speed as a number of older warship designs. It was also a better option than purchasing an old light carrier because the EZ-788 would be easier to maintain and would also likely require a smaller crew.

In order to convert the ship however, it did have to be basically completely gutted. The cargo areas had to be converted into fighter bays. The crew quarters were also completely inadequate for the new crew. Space needed to be carved out from the cargo hold in order to berth additional pilots, flight crews, and ship’s crew.

In addition, the escort carrier would need an improved weapon battery as well as improved sensor systems. As the mercenary company is not one of the more wealthy companies, the merchant vessel’s conversion had to be as austere as possible. This includes using older systems whenever possible and retaining as much of the original systems as well.

In order to maximize the fighter compliment, it was decided to embark exclusively light fighters. Once converted, the total fighter wing for the escort carrier was one hundred and twenty fighters in ten squadrons. Originally the carrier operated the Super Venom fighter exclusively but recently the ship replaced two squadrons with the Venom-X improved version and two squadrons with the I.C.E. Hyena fighter. Unlike the older fighter, both of these mount protective force fields. Eventual plans are to replace the entire compliment with these more advanced fighters.

In addition to the fighter compliment, the Concorde embarks a small compliment of space power armor. A total of forty-eight Tomahawk power armor are usually embarked. Even though there are faster space power armor designs, the Tomahawk has a large mini-missile payload and can keep up with the ship. It is expected for these armors to usually stay relatively close to the vessel to act as inner defense for the escort carrier. Fire control systems are programmed specifically to exclude them for targeting.

As fitted, the cargo ship mounted eight point defense laser batteries and four medium range missile batteries. These were retained with the magazine space for the medium range missiles greatly increased. The mercenaries were able to get a number of point defense electromagnetic rail gun mounts and a pair of older long range missile batteries from ships being upgraded. While the long range missile batteries do not have the ability to fire as large volleys as modern systems, they still give reasonably decent long range defensive firepower.

While the ship’s armor is not appreciably increased other than some additional armor around the bridge, it was decided to replace the original force field generator with a variable force field similar to what is mounted on most warships. The generator is also from a warship where the force field generator was upgraded to a more powerful unit.

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: EZ-788-CVE Escort Carrier (Refitted).

Vehicle Type: Space, Carrier - Escort (Converted Medium Cargo Ship).

Crew: 278 (16 Officers and 262 Enlisted Crew.)

Troops: 180 Fighter Pilots, 48 “Tomahawk” Space Power Armor Pilots, and 40 Marines.

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:

Power Armors:

TCS-6-MM “Tomahawk” Space Combat Strike Exoskeleton.

Fighter Compliment:

	72	Mercenary MSX-32S “Venom” Light Starfighters (Advanced Model).
	24	Python Space Industries PV-MSX-32X “Venom-X” Light Starfighters.
	24	Ross Aerospace MSX-128-ICE “I.C.E. Hyena” Light Starfighters.

M.D.C. By Location:

	Triple Barrel Defense Laser Turrets (8):	150 each.
	Point Defense Electromagnetic Rail Gun Turrets (6):	150 each.
	Long Range Missile Batteries (2):	500 each.
	Medium Range Missile Launchers (4):	400 each.
	Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	125.
	Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	75.
	[1] Bridge:	6,000.
	Hanger Bays (4):	5,000.
	[2] Main Engines (2):	6,000 each.
	[3] Main Body:	27,000.
	[4] Variable Force Field:	4,000 per side (24,000 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 armor. 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 carrier 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] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (1,200 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 20 percent of the speed of light maximum due to civilian shields. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.7 percent of light per melee.

Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 300 mph (483 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 3.5 light years per hour.

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system. Carries about two years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:

Length: 735 feet (224 meters).

Height: 205 feet (62.5 meters).

Width: 225 feet (68.6 meter).

Mass/Weight: 265,000 Tons (240,400 metric tons).

Power System: Advanced Fusion with a 25 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling and refitting.

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 40,000 tons (36,290 metric tons) of Cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ship’s spaces are taken up by extra ammo, armor, troops, and weapons.

Market Cost: Including both the original cost of the cargo ship and modifications, the ship costs about 2.2 billion credits. Cost does not include embarked craft.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Eight (8) 2.5 cm Point Defense Lasers in Triple Mounts: Mounted on the top, bottom, port, and bottom side of the vessel. All mounts can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

Maximum Effective Range: 2.5 miles (4 km) miles through atmosphere and 250 miles (402 km) in space.

Mega-Damage: 3D6x10 M.D.

Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Six (6) Point Defense 15 mm Electromagnetic Rail Guns: Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. They are used as an anti-starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each rail gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. When used in space, projectiles are fired from rail gun at a significant fraction of the speed of light. When used in an atmosphere, projectile velocities are slower to prevent them from burning up but still are at hypersonic speeds. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities. These rail guns use 15 mm depleted uranium projectiles.

Maximum Effective Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 800 miles (1,290 km) in space.

Mega-Damage: Rail gun inflicts 3D6x10 M.D.C. for an 80 round burst.

Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

Payload: 16,000 rounds (200 bursts) each cannon.
Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missiles have a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and have an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship) in space. Whether missiles can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missiles. When drive goes dead, missiles 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 missiles, when unpowered, are at -25% to be detected.) Long range missiles do not have penalties to hit small targets, unlike cruise missiles, and are almost always smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries contain a lower number of individual launchers than the batteries on modern Consortium warships with each launcher being slightly larger in size.

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 Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details (Fusion warheads inflict 2D4x100 M.D.C. each.)

Rate of Fire: Can fire long range missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) long range missiles per battery, per melee attack.

Payload: 640 total, 320 long range missiles per battery.
Four (4) Medium Range Missile Batteries: Each battery is on the port and starboard side of the ship. Weapon system is used for hitting enemy robots, fighters, and missiles (both cruise and long range missiles.) Missiles have a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and have an acceleration of 6% of light per turn in space. Weapon system can be used on multiple targets simultaneously.

Maximum Effective Range: Medium Range Missile range is 160 miles (257.5 km) in an atmosphere and 80,000 miles (128,750 km/0.43 light seconds) in space.

Mega-Damage: Varies with medium range missile type (Multi-warhead heavy warheads inflict 5D6x10 M.D.C. each - See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.)

Rate of Fire: Can fire medium range missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), four (4), or eight (8)medium range missiles per melee attack.

Payload: Has 128 medium range missiles per battery for 512 medium range missiles total.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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