"Cargo Master" class Medium Freighter:

There are hundreds or thousands of different cargo ship classes that operate within the Three Galaxies although most of the, fall into three basic classes, small like the ship listed in the Phase World, medium like the Cargo Master listed here, and large which are ships about the same size as a Packmaster class carrier. The Cargo master is fairly typical for medium size cargo ships and medium size cargo ships are the most common. These ships are not constructed anywhere near military standards and are neither as strongly constructed, as heavily armed, or has as heavy shields as military ships. This is not the real problem with these ships. The biggest problem that these various ship classes have is that many of the ships are not properly maintained because owners do not want to pay to maintain their ships. Many merchant ships, especially those not operating in the Consortium of Civilized Worlds (who have rules to try to prevent problem) are considered death traps by their crews. Freighters operated by Militaries and larger companies are usually better maintained than those run by smaller concerns and individuals

While the hull design is identical, these ships are designed for specific cargos when construction although this can be changed in a refit. The two most common internal layouts are for carrying bulk cargo or carrying special containers. The bulk carrier style fills a similar role to Twentieth Century ocean going ships that carried steel and coal to various places around the world. The container ship carries huge numbers of sealed containers to various places around the Three Galaxies. If a cargo needs a special environment, it is maintained by special equipment on the container itself. Vehicle carrying versions of the Cargo Master do also exist. Militaries have modified versions of the "Cargo Master" to help support ground assaults and for fleet supply ships. The support ships have special tractor units to be able to resupply ships in space and normally carry spare parts, consumables, and various ordnance.

Crew quarters are slightly more comfortable than those on military ships and the crew has one cabin for every two crew members except for senior officers. The ships master has the largest cabin. These ships are lightly armed and some have even been constructed with no weapon systems. The standard versions are armed for point defense only although some militaries add a few more weapon systems (normally about double). The standard weaponry of a "Cargo Master" includes six laser batteries and six medium range missile batteries. The ship does have light shields for some protection beyond the hull as well. The ships are not very fast in either sublight or FTL but are instead designed to maximize cargo carrying capability.

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: CRA-1565
Vehicle Type: Medium Freighter
Crew: 65 (7 Officers and 58 Ordinary Crew)

Vehicles:

Mini-Tugs (Provision for cargo transport, not always carried)

M.D.C By Location:

	Point Defense Laser Cannon Turrets (6):	250 each
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (6):	300 each
	Outer Hull (40 x 40 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	100
	Inner Hull (40 x 20 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	75
	[1] Bridge:	4,000
	[2] Main Engines (2):	5,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	25,000
	[4] Force Field (Regular):	5000

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 liner 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 are not variable. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (250 M.D.C.) per melee

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 0.5 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: 950 feet (289.6 meters)
Height: 330 feet (100.6 meters)
Width: 320 feet (97.5 meters)
Weight: 330,000 Tons (300,000 metric tons)
Power System: Advanced Fusion with a 20 year life span
Cargo: Can carry up to 300,000 tons of cargo in addition to crew’s supplies.
Market Cost: 1.1 Billion credits (Military versions about 1.6 billion and non armed version about 950 million)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Six (6) Laser Batteries: Weapon system is used as an anti-missile, anti-power armor, and anti-star fighter. Weapons system has no minuses to hit fighters and small targets and can be operated by a gunner or a gunner program (+2 to strike, 3 Attacks per melee).
Maximum Effective Range: 200 miles (322 km) in space and 4 miles (6.4 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 3D6x10 M.D.C. each.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Six (6) Medium Range Missile Batteries: A slightly higher capacity version of the medium range missile batteries carried on a normal Merchantman. Missile has a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 6% of light per turn. Normally used for anti-fighter and point defense. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each.
Mega-Damage: Varies with medium range missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
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.
Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), four (4), or eight (8) missiles per battery.
Payload: 32 per battery for a total of 192 medium range missiles.

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Image drawn and copyrighted by Roman Kochnev (r_kochnev@hotmail.com).

More Roman Kochnev artwork at The Science Fiction Art and Design Portfolio of Roman Kochnev.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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