Michelangelo class Star Liner:


There was a brief time that when man was limited to a single planet, ocean liners crossed the high seas. Many were considered incredible works of engineering and art, combining opulent and luxurious. Eventually the time of these great liners faded, replaced in large part by airliners. Trips that would take days or weeks to travel now could be completed in just hours.


When man reached the stars, the idea of the liner was reborn. Distances between the stars are unimaginably vast compared to any ocean. In many ways these star liners could be compared to the ocean liners of eons past. They were designed to be luxurious and comfortable for long voyages. Voyages might take weeks or even months to complete.


The Michelangelo class star liner is one of the older classes of star liners in the Three Galaxies still operated in large numbers. A surprising number of these old star liners are still in service. These liners were built to last and they will likely serve for the foreseeable future. In many cases, these older star liners have moved out to the periphery of settled systems. Poorer star lines tend to use these older vessels as well.


Standard passenger compliment of these liners is twelve hundred. The ships one hundred and twenty luxury staterooms with the remainder of the passengers being berthed in double occupancy cabins. The staterooms are slightly smaller than those on most newer vessels. While still having nice amenities, these older liners do not have quite as much in the way of amenities as the newest liner classes. Crew quarters are less luxurious than passenger spaces although officer quarters are extremely nice. Some of these liners have been converted with the removal of the luxury staterooms to increase the number of passengers which can be carried. In this case, these liners can carry two thousand passengers total. The number of stewards on these "plain" liners is reduced as well.


Generally liners are designed to be quite fast, faster than most standard merchant designs. Speeds of liners are often similar to that of warships. The newest liners can reach top speeds of around four and a half light years per hour. Being a bit older, the Michelangelo class liner is not quite as fast with a top speed of around three and a half light years per hour. This is quite comparable to most Human Alliance warship classes which were developed around the same time as the Michelangelo class liner first entered service. Unlike most warships, power is produced by fusion plants instead of anti-matter plants.


Because of the large number of passengers potentially including extremely wealthy passengers, star liners are extremely juicy targets. As a result, these liners are designed to be able to protect themselves quite well. This includes light weaponry, light cruiser class military variable shields, and far better sensors than most civilian designs. While most merchant vessels have at least some light weaponry, most star liners carry much heavier weaponry - about equal to that of an escort cruiser. Standard for the Michelangelo class liner are two 18 cm heavy particle beams, two long range missile batteries, eight point defense laser mounts, and six mini-missile batteries. The long range missile batteries do not have the throw weight of modern batteries but still enough to be quite effective. A total of around seven hundred long range missiles are carried. A small number of light fighters can be embarked although are not always carried. When first introduced, the Vixen light fighter was often carried but in most cases, when fighters are embarked, newer fighters are embarked.


As with newer star liner classes, the Michelangelo class liner has been used in a number of military roles. Often liner are pressed into service as troop transports during times of war but others are operated permanently as troop transports. In this configuration, these ships can carry up to forty eight hundred troops. These ships are not assault vessels and only carry a small number of unarmed shuttles. These ships have also been converted to hospital ships. As hospital ships, these ships have a dozen state of the art operation rooms, advanced regeneration equipment, cloning banks for replacement limbs and organs, 2,400 medical beds, and 300 stasis chambers. These ship also have a total of 600 medical personnel to support the medical facilities. The Human Alliance has a number of these type hospital ships and troop transports. While they plan to replace most warship classes, there is little planning being given towards replacing these ship.


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:LYL-22Michelangelo class star liner
LYL-22TPershing class Troop Transports
LYL-22HKuan-Yin class Hospital Ships
Vehicle Type: Star Liner
Crew:LYL-22160 (20 Officers and 140 Ordinary Crew) with 200 Ships Stewards (100 in some)
LYL-22T160 (20 Officers and 140 Enlisted Crew)
LYL-22H160 (20 Officers and 140 Enlisted Crew) with 600 Medical Personnel
Passengers:LYL-221,200 Passengers (2,000 in some)
LYL-22T4,800 Troops
LYL-22H2,400 Medical Bed / 300 Stasis Chambers


Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment:

4Light Fighters (Provision for, Generally not carried)
Shuttles:
8Passenger Shuttles


M.D.C. By Location:

18 cm Particle Beam Batteries (2 Particle Beams):800 each
Double Barrel Point Defense Laser Turrets (8):150 each
Long Range Missile Batteries (2):400 each
Mini-Missile Launchers (4):100 each
Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):120
Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):80
[1] Bridge:6,000
[2] Main Engines (2):10,000 each
[3] Main Body:40,000
[4] Variable Force Field:3,000 a 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 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 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 positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (900 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 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.65 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 300 mph (480 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: 880 feet (268.22 meters)
Height: 250 feet (76.20 meters)
Width: 440 feet (134.11 meters)
Weight: 265,000 Tons (240,400 metric tons)
Power System: Advanced Fusion with a 20 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 30,000 tons (27,200 metric tons) of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. These cargo spaces are used for both passengers' luggage/cargo and to carry contracted cargo or mail.
Market Cost: 2.5 billion credits including luxuries. The ship would cost 1.0 without luxuries. (Hospital ships cost 3.2 billion credit.) Does not include fighter compliment.


WEAPON SYSTEMS:

  1. Main 18 cm Particle beam batteries (2): These 18 cm particle beams are mounted in the forward area of the ship. Batteries can be fired up to 120 degrees toward the rear on either side (can only fire one cannon at a target at that angle but can spin to be able to bring both batteries to bear) and can fire at a 30 degree angle up or down. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.
    Maximum Effective Range: 70,000 miles (112,650 km)in space and 70 miles (112.7 km) in an atmosphere.
    Mega Damage: 3D6x100 M.D.C. each (6D6x100 M.D.C. for two)
    Rate of Fire: Maximum of three (3) times per melee per particle beam.
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
  2. Eight (8) Point Defense 2 cm Lasers in Double Mounts: Used as an anti-starfighter and missile weapon. Each laser 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 (402.3 km) in space.
    Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 M.D.
    Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited
  3. Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: 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 and each launcher is 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 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: 720 total, 360 long range missiles per battery.
  4. Four (4) Mini-Missile Launchers: These are missile turrets used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. 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.) Batteries 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.
    Mega-Damage: Varies with mini-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 four (4) or eight (8) mini-missiles
    Payload: 128 per launcher for a total of 512 mini-missiles. Cargo hold has an additional 2048 mini-missile. Reloading launchers from cargo hold takes 1D6 minutes.



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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).


Copyright © 2011, Kitsune. All rights reserved.



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