Alliance Space Vehicle - The Lancer-Pattern Heavy Assault Frigate

ST/HP: 700

Hand/SR: +0/5

HT: 12

Move: 2/250 (+12)

LWt.: 2750

Load: 285

SM: +9

Occ.: 90ASV

DR: 2500/500*

Range: 4 jumps

Cost: $2.7B

Loc.: g3rR

Stall: 0

Total Chase Roll: +12

*The Lancer has 2500 Carbide DR on the front and 500 Carbide DR on all other locations. It also has a force screen with 1000 ablative, hardened DR.

Notes

Heavy Alliance Assault Frigate Equipment:

• Medium Tactical Ultra-Scanner: 30-mile scan, 3-mile imaging/bioscan; 360°;
  
  
• Targeting Computer: +5 to hit target with a scan-lock.
  
  
• Night Vision Sensors: +9 nightvision, ×8 magnification (up to +3 to aimed attacks, if the vehicle aims for three turns).
  
  
• Distortion Jammer: -4 ECM penalty for missiles; +2 to jam missiles.
  
  
• Tactical ESM: +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: Complex Locks.
  
  
• Hyperium Reactor: 30 days endurance.
  
  

Heavy Alliance Assault Frigate Accommodation and Facilities:

• Full Life-Support: up to 100 people
  
  
• Accommodations: 1 Luxury Cabin, 4 full cabins, 70 bunks, 1 5-bed sickbay, 1 gym; artificial gravity.
  
  
• Cargo: a single “arsenal” capable of carrying up to 3 tons (enough for 60 soldiers to stow 100 lbs of gear).
  
  

The Lancer has a 3-man cockpit with roomy, spacious computerized controls. Generally, this breaks down into the pilot, the co-pilot who can take over the controls and maintains comms and sensors, and a gunner.

The Lancer has a spinal-mounted, capital-scale EM disruptor and two side-mounted, corvette-scale turrets each armed with 3 cannons each (total ROF of 3 each for a grand total of 3). All on-board weapons get their power from onboard energy banks, limiting the amount of shots they have in a battle.

Weapon	Dmg	Acc	Range	Ewt	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
Disruptor Cannon	6d×75(5) sur	9	60mi/180mi	500t	1	15	M	-10	2
Corvette Cannons	6d×30(5) burn	9	10mi/30mi	25t	1	100	M	-10	2

Look and Feel

The Lancer-Pattern Assault Frigate dates from an ancient era of Alexian Warfare, and their design exudes an antique atmosphere. A gleaming, often baroquely designed ram decorates the prow of the ship, and the head of the ship bulks out behind the prow like a great shield. Behind the prow, the ship extends to the rear, where the engines flare out to give the vehicle its power. Two corvette-scale turrets pivot on the rear half of the vehicle, to either side, and the bridge, well-shielded, nestles atop. A heavy, spinal-mounted EM disruptor cannon runs the entire underside of the vehicle and juts out the bottom of the prow, the Lancer’s “lance.”

A spartan interior greets those who board the vessel. A central, metal walkway runs the length of the ship and clangs underfoot. This reaches all the various bunks along the central shaft of the body, and ladders appear at regular intervals that lead one to the lower-deck, where technicians maintain the EM disruptor and other vital systems. Each bunk room consists of a stacked pair of bunk beds with an extensive locker containing the occupants equipment, generally gear. The rear of the ship has most of the accommodations, including a simple sickbay, a gymnasium and sparring room, and the mess, the command crew’s cabin, and the owning noble’s luxurious cabin. One can climb ladders to reach the “bridge” above, which is as spartan as the rest of the ship. Behind and beneath all of this runs engineering, where technicians scurry to keep the ancestral machinery of the Lancer functioning. In the far front of the vehicle, one enters a great chamber in the hard of the prow, inside the protection of the forward armor. When the ship prepares for boarding, this room seals. Once the ship has rammed the enemy ship, the frontal prow will open as it latches on, and torches will burn through the armor. Once this is finished, the forward “force lock” will drop its screen, and the chamber’s pressure will equalize with the target vessel’s pressure, and the boarders can dismount and attack. Dim lights illuminate the interior with a twilight glow, similar to the conditions of a vehicle in full battle-readiness; this is a conscious choice, to keep the soldiers acclimated to the dark.

The Lancer belongs to an ancient era of warfare, and its like made up the bulk of the fleet of Alexus Rex. They charged at the enemy under the cover of battleship fire and boarded enemy ships. Space Knights led the charge with their heavy armor and force buckler, cutting down nearby opponents with their force sword and clearing a space for the rest of the boarding crew to gain a foothold. Then the rest of the soldiers would flood in and, ideally, take the ship. This allowed Alexus Rex to not only eliminate an enemy ship, but add it to his growing fleet.

Since that Era, the Lancer has seen less and less use. The modern fighter outpaces it and can often destroy a target before the Lancer has even come close to attaching itself to the target ship. They also prove vulnerable to quick strike craft, as their armor can take hits from capital ships, but a fighter can reach their vulnerable rear armor and hit them with a torpedo, assuring their destruction.

Still, it remains a valid tactic to this day: a proper fighter escort can keep it alive, and once it reaches the enemy, a solid boarding party can capture an enemy ship rather handily. A Lancer can carry a full platoon of soldiers and typically carries at least one fully armed and armored space knight. Their presence in the Alliance fleet has forced the Empire to stock its crews with a serious military presence to fend off space knight attacks. They also double as excellent, if bulky, drop-ships, as their heavy armor allows them to shrug off attacks from anything smaller than full orbital artillery, and they can land and disgorge a full platoon of soldiers. Finally, a topic the Alliance finds distasteful to discuss, the Lancer makes an excellent addition to a pirate fleet as their preferred tactics look surprisingly like piracy. No noble would openly acknowledge using them to raid shipping lanes, but quite a few Caliban nobles have grown wealthy during the war and maintain a considerable fleet of Lancers.