"Holk" class Heavy Bulk Transport:

Heavy Transports carry the largest cargoes around the Three Galaxies. Smaller cargo ships often carry cargoes broken up from the loads carried from these huge ships. These ships are around the same as the Packmaster class carrier. These ships are extremely valuable due to their size. Only a fairly small number of these ships are built compared to smaller merchant ship designs. Most are well taken care of although even the large ships find their way into the hands of those who take less care of their vessels. Some of these ships are extremely ill maintained and practical death traps. Most of these ships are considered too expensive to be refitted.

Some systems have regulations on ships like these although in other areas there are practically no regulations at all. There have been attempts within the Consortium by several planets to completely ban these type of ships but each time the bills have been blocked. Some Consortium captains use excuses to seize these vessels and have them scrapped. This is because many of these captains have had to rescue crews of these ships when something has gone wrong. They also know that for every crew member they manage to rescue, dozens to hundreds are never rescued. Space is incredibly vast and many of these ships just disappear. Still, there are always poor people willing to crew these vessels to escape from poverty. They can be purchased extremely cheaply and many lines don't care about the loss of a few crew. Many companies operate these ships through front companies to protect them from liability.

The "Holk" class Transport were once the premier heavy transport operated within the Three Galaxies but those times are long behind this ship. You would expect that most of the ships to be scrapped due to the large transports needing to be properly maintained and for many ships, they have been scrapped. Many others are stripped down and even welded together to form orbital stations. While there are still dangers involved in using them for stations, they are far less stressed than they would if still operated as cargo carriers. Still, a small number of these ships are still operated. Many of them have structural damage and hull damage.

Because large ships such as these have always been a target for pirates, most were armed. They were originally armed with a dozen pulse lasers and half a dozen medium range missile launchers. Many owners of these ships consider the missiles expensive and provide little or no missiles for the launchers. While much less lightly armed than most warships, these weapons were capable of protecting ships were capable from pirate attacks in most cases. Only large attacks against these ships were likely to capture these merchants although newer pirate ships can cut through these defenses. As well, many mount light shields. Some have been stripped of these weaponry and shields although most still retain the weaponry. In some cases, these weapons are even retained when they are used as space stations.

Cargo carried on these ships is usually bulk in type, containers were usually carried on frame ships where containers are carried in frames wrapped around an engineering section. Later container ships have a full hull. Various cargo were better suited to be carried on bulk cargo vessels. These ships can carry loads up to thirty million tons. Unlike modern military ships, power is provided by a fusion reactor. These reactors are often heavily jury-rigged and are extremely low on fuel. Sensors are better than those carried on the Kogge class but still only have a third the range of those on modern vessels.

Crew is twice that of the Freight King class cargo ship and lack automation of newer vessels. Often these ships are operated by skeleton crews. Crew quarters were originally fairly comfortable although in many cases these quarters have been virtually stripped. In many cases, life support of these ships have not been overhauled. There have been cases where a Warship tries to rescue a ship and finds a dead hulk where the whole crew died when life support failed.

Ship design uses modified starship speeds and weapon ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: VQX-800
Vehicle Type: Heavy Freighter (Obsolete)
Crew: 220 (20 Officers and 200 Ordinary Crew)

Vehicles:

	16	Mini-Tugs (Provision for cargo transport, not always carried)
	2	Light Shuttles (for Crew Emergencies but can be used for light cargo)

M.D.C. By Location:

	Point Defense Laser Cannon Turrets (12):	180 each
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (6):	220 each
	Outer Hull (40 x 40 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	80
	Inner Hull (40 x 20 ft/ 12.2 m x 12.2 Area):	60
	[1] Bridge:	8,000
	[2] Main Engines (2):	7,200 each
	[3] Main Body:	35,000
	[4] Force Field (Regular):	5,000

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 cargo ship 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.
(Hit locations assume a ship in good condition. For a ship in less than optimal condition, roll 1D6 and multiply by ten. Reduce all hit locations by that amount)

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 0.2 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 100 mph (161 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight. The ship would likely come apart in an atmosphere and are only operated in space.
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 1.0 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about one and a half worth of supplies on board and a small hydroponic section for the small crew but normally does not operate for that long without resupply.

Statistical Data:
Length: 5,600 feet (1,706.88 meters)
Height: 1,450 feet (441.96 meters)
Width: 1,250 feet (381.00 meters)
Weight/Mass: 35 million tons (31.75 million metric tons)
Power System: Fusion with a 12 year life span. The ship is suppose to only goes 5 years between refueling and refitting although many crews stretch it.
Cargo: Can carry up to 30 million tons (27.2 million metric tons) of cargo in addition to crew’s supplies. 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 take up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: 4 billion credits (non armed version about 3.75 billion)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Twelve (12) Laser Batteries: Weapon system is used as an anti-missile, anti-power armor, and anti-star fighter. Weapons system has no penalties to hit fighters and small targets and can be operated by a gunner or a gunner program (+2 to strike, 3 Attacks per melee). The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.
Maximum Effective Range: 100 miles (161 km) in space and 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 2D4x10 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: 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 at the same time.
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 (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
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: 24 per battery for a total of 144 medium range missiles.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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