Redjack Wrangler-Class Logistical Corvette

ST/HP: 320

Hand/SR: +0/5

HT: 14

Move: 2/150 (+11)

LWt.: 250

Load: 66

SM: +7

Occ.: 4ASV

DR: 500*

Range: 200,000, 7 jumps (Rating 2)

Cost: $80M

Loc.: G3t3rL

Stall: 0

Total Chase Roll: +11

*Nanocomposite Polymer; double DR vs plasma attacks. Has a Force Screen that provides 250 ablative, hardened DR.

Notes

Redjack Corvette Electronics:

• Ultrascanner Open Mount: 150-mile search range, 15-mile scan range; low probability intercept (detectable at 225 miles); 360° rotation.
  
  
• Night Vision Sensors: +9 nightvision, ×8 magnification (up to +3 to aimed attacks, if the vehicle aims for three turns).
  
  
• Targeting Computers: +5 to Gunnery projects provided a sensor lock is gained.
  
  
• Distortion Jammer: -4 ECM rating.
  
  
• Tactical ECM: +1 to dodge missiles.
  
  
• Large FTL Communication Array: 30-parsec range.
  
  
• Large Holographic Radio: 10,000 mile range (orbital); “palm sized” holographic console.
  
  
• Security and Safety: Simple Locks;
  
  
• Accommodations: 2 cabins; total possible accommodations for 4. One workshop and one prospecting lab (+1 to all Prospecting rolls)
  
  
• Hyperdrive: Rating 2, with sufficient fuel for 7 jumps.
  
  
• Ruggedized Hyperium Reactor: 30 days endurance.
  
  

The Wrangler has a single “control” section with computerized controls and seats for a pilot and co-pilot. The engine section contains a robotic control station where a robot can directly plug in.

The Wrangler has three turrets with full rotation, contained one MIN-3R mining laser, one SP74-TR Plasma Gatling, and one ST 160 tractor beam.

Weapon	Dmg	Acc	Range	Ewt	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Notes
MIN-3R Mining Laser Module	5d×15(10) cut inc	12	500/3 mi	4000	1	25/5E	M	-10	1
SP74-TR Heavy Plasma Gatling	6dx15(2) burn ex	6	3mi/ 8mi	4000	8	88/ 3F	M	-10	3

Logistics Modules

The Wrangler has room for multiple possible configurations of its industrial section. All wranglers are capable of at least dismantling 10 lbs of material into raw materials per hour and fabricating $500 worth of parts per hour, provided it has sufficient raw materials (such as dismantled parts). Note that this fabricator is not a replicator: it might give you the materials you need to build, say, a blaster, but it cannot assemble it for you.

These modules are large and take at least 4 hours with the right tools to replace, or 8 without the right tools

Salvager Module

40,000 lbs; $3M

Wranglers equipped with Salvager equipment can dismantle up to 700 lbs of junk, scrap and damaged (or perfectly fine) starship parts an hour into raw materials. It can also fabricate $1000 worth of parts per hour. Finally, it has sufficient cargo space to store up to 125,000 lbs (62.5 tons)

Foundry Module

40,000 lbs; $600,000

Wranglers equipped with a Foundry can refine raw asteroidal ores into raw materials at a pace of 700 lbs of extracted metal per hour. It can also fabricate $1000 worth of parts per hour. Finally, it has sufficient cargo space to store up to 125,000 lbs (62.5 tons)

40,000 lbs; $600,000

Refinery Module

Wranglers equipped with a Refinery can refine raw hydrogen, hyperium and ice into refined fuels or atmosphere ready for life support. It can refine hyperium at a pace of 350 gallons an hour. It can store up to 17,000 gallons of hyperium (or other liquid).

Look and Feel

The Wrangler is perhaps the least attractive Redjack vehicle in a great collection of unattractive vehicles. The pilot and co-pilot sit in a boxy cabin and watch space through a large window. The rest of the vehicle resembles a longer, larger box, with a single, round turret on the top, mounted with the plasma gatling and two turrets mounted on the bottom, one with a tractor beam, the other with a mining laser.

The interior is hardly less practical. The pilots can leave their squat cabin and either go to one of their two cabins or the shared galley between, or the vast work-area between the cabin and the engine room. Here, they can descend to the mining equipment, or ascend to the anti-fighter turret above via a rickety catwalk. Industrial machinery dominates this central area, though this varies depending on how the Wrangler has been equipped: the foundry glows an ominous red, scrapping gear churns and gnashes machinery into raw material, and great gas tanks dominate the refinery. During mining or salvage operations, this part of the ship empties itself of atmosphere, requiring the crew to move about the ship in vacuum, and the feed salvaged parts or extracted ores directly into the machinery from ‘below” the ship. Finally, in the far back, one enters the cluttered, closed-in spaces of the ion thrusters and hyperdrive, as well as the diagnostic bay of the robot in the back. This section also contains a mini-fabricator and a dismantler, for recycling parts to better maintain the Wrangler.

Wranglers obviously serve as a major industrial component in the edges of the Galaxy. Travelers often see them when traveling through asteroid belts or diving into gas giants, or picking scraps from the debris of a battlefield. They also fill up the hangars of space stations and planets at the edges of space, where their “space trucker” crew, often away and unbathed for months at time, pile into cantinas with the spoils of their mining operation. The common man knows them well as working vehicles.

Pirates and miners also understand their utility as logistical vehicles. A single Wrangler can refine enough fuel to refuel a Wildcat in two hours, and carries enough fuel to refuel a full squadron. They can’t rebuild a capital ship on their own, but they often have enough spare parts or raw material to build spare parts (of can salvage it from other damaged ships) to allow for reasonably field repairs even without bringing the ship into “dry dock.” They also play a role as mine-layers, with enough space to carry hundreds of Boomer-Bots, and it can lay them with precision using its tractor beam and control software. Wranglers often do this to protect a claimed asteroid, but will happily do it to protect other strategic sites. Finally, while slow, a Wrangler is tough and can take a pounding from fighters while taking a few with it. The Wrangler is no combat corvette, but can endure in combat if necessary, making it a useful support vehicle for any light, resilient, independent fleet.

Boomer-Bots

Like Banger-Bots, Boomer-Bots are better described as smart, automated weapon systems than as robots. They resemble large, man-sized oblong spheres with jutting prods, a red camera-eye and a simple interface point. They can warble electronically, and they float patiently while waiting for commands.

Boomer-Bots can survive and move in the cold depths of deep space. Typically, Wrangler-class logistic corvettes will dump them out in the right general area and then issue commands for the Boomer-Bots to go forth and form a network. They can communicate with one another by burst transmission and then settle down for a long, slow wait.

When any ship that isn’t transmitting the right IFF codes comes within 30 miles of Boomer-Bots, they activate. In sentry mode, they signal the details they passively detected back to their master ship via directed, burst transmission, preventing detection by the incoming ship (though they might pick it up anyway on an Electronics Operations (Sensors or Comms) at -6). These sensors readings tend to be passive magnetic and EM emission detections and so say very little. At the command of the master ship, they can “ping” the ship with their Ultrascanners, to get a thorough reading; any ship equipped with an ESM will automatically know that they were pinged and by what, as a Boomer-Bot Ultrascanner signal is pretty distinctive.

If the Boomer-Bot is in kill-mode, it will wait until the detected ship is in Extreme range, and then attempt to ram it in one turn. This requires a roll of 12 or less (17 or less if they have a target lock). The target may attempt to dodge (+1 if they have ESM and the Boomer-Bot locked on). If they fail, the Boomer-Bot will immediately explode and inflict its explosive charge damage. This explosive is usually a HEMP charge; it can be replaced with an Isomeric charge for five times the cost (and deals the same damage as a torpedo).

If a ship attempts to navigate the Boomer-Bot field, treat this as attempting to navigate a debris field; if the ship collides with a Boomer-Bot, it explodes; additionally, every turn, the ship should have to dodge a number of Boomer-Bot attacks depending on the density (by default 1d Boomer-Bot attacks per action turn).

ST: 14 DX: 10 IQ: 6 HT: 11

HP: 20 Will: 5 Per: 12 Speed: 4 Dodge: 8 Move: 8/300 SM: 0; 600 lbs

DR: 50

Slam (12): 6d×10 cr

HEMP Self-Destruct Charge (NA): 6d×50(10) cr inc + linked 8d×8 cr ex [20d]

Traits: Absolute Direction; Accessory (Small Computer, Self-Destruct Charge); Appearance (Ugly; Off the Shelf); AI; Automaton; Bad Grip 1; Cannot Speak (Beep); No Legs (Congragravity); Deafness; Detect (Comms and Ultrascanner, signal detection; Electrical and Magnetic Fields); Doesn’t Breathe; DR 50 (Cannot wear Armor); Electrical, Maintenance (one person, monthly), No Peripheral Vision; Night Vision 9; Numb; Obscure -4 (Ultrascannery, Stealthy); One-Eye; Protected Vision; Reduced Consumption 3 [6]; Restricted Diet (Common, Power Cells); Scanning Sense (Ultrascanner; 30 miles yards; Targeting, Scanner, Bio-Scan); Sealed; Silent 1; Telecommunication (Comm System, 100 mile range, Burst, Secure, Video); Temperature Tolerance (Cold) 10; Vacuum Support.

Skills: Brawling-12; Electronics Operations (Comms)-8; Electronics Operations (Sensors)-8; Stealth-12; Wrestling-12.

Energy: 2D/Week

Cost: $50,000