Directorate Officer
Image Source: Sato Dragon concept art modified by yours truly
Affiliation: Lucerne Labs, open market
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: LL-1200 Light Freighter
Modularity: warheads, designed to easily accept aftermarket upgrades (generally requires separate submission per individual ship)
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel frame, Trimantium hull plating
Classification: Light Freighter
Length: 22 meters
Height: 5 meters
Width: 10 meters
Armament: Rating 10
2 Dorsal Twin Laser Cannon Turrets
1 Ventral Twin LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launcher Turret
Defense: 12
Squadron Count: 6
Special Features:
Basic Warheads Countermeasure Launcher (10 Chaff bursts or 7 Flares)
Standard Communications Array
Standard Communications Array
Standard Deflector Shield Generator
Standard Ion Engines
Standard Life Support Systems
Standard Navigational Systems
Standard Sensor Array
Standard Targeting Systems
Sublight Acceleration Motor
Two escape pods
Can Enter Atmosphere and Land
Carries 6 passengers & 85 metric tons of cargo or other equivalent
Manoeuvrability Rating: 4 (7 with SLAM)
Speed Rating: 4 (3 with SLAM)
Hyperdrive Class: 1
Strengths:
Easily Modified and Repaired: Lucerne Labs carefully emulated CEC's YT-series of freighters in its interior architecture to ensure that the freighter can be easily modified by its operators. To help ensure that its parts would be easily acquireable anywhere, not only is the freighter designed to accept a variety of parts from different manufacturers, but its stock version includes components from other companies, rather than using model specific parts.
Speed Boost: Lucerne Labs incorporated a pair of Sublight Acceleration Motors an each of the ship's engine pods, which allows the LL-1200 to accelerate to the speeds of most starfighters for brief periods of times.
Weaknesses:
Hampered Maneuverability: Engaging the ship's SLAM system makes the ship much more difficult to control when maneuvering.
Subcontractor Construction: In an effort to cut down on construction cost and to appeal to independent operators, most of the basic starship systems (such as life support, various computers, etc) were supplied by a variety of other companies at a bid contract basis. Because of this, it's not unusual for various glitches to occur between these systems or to find occasional subpar components that somehow managed to pass through the contractor's quality control measures.
Description: The LL-1200 is Lucerne Labs's first entry into the crowded light freighter market designed for use by the company's corporate fleet as well as by independent operators across the galaxy. While the ship's rough design is heavily influenced by the ZH-25 Questor-class, its internal systems and architecture emulates CEC's classic light freighters. The resulting ship is reasonably competitive with the YT-series, pushing against the edge of legal performance for a civilian starship.
While Lucerne Labs officially markets the LL-1200 as a medium range cargo hauler, it seems clear the design is geared towards business in the rougher areas of the galaxy because its oversized power core, enhanced engines, and a hull wrapped in trimantium plating to better withstand high stress maneuvers. While these features may attract legitimate businesses who operate in such areas, it makes the craft appealing to smugglers, pirates, and mercenaries.
The LL-1200 features an almost CEC-style cockpit at the center of the ship, followed by the living quarters that branch out from the central tube into hull. The main hull body contains the ship's two cargo holds as well the freighters common areas. The center stern of the craft contains its an extra-wide ramp for loading and unloading cargos and vehicles. On either side of the stern are a pair of substantial sublight engine pods which provide the bulk of the ship's thrust. Just ahead of these pods are a pair of dorsal twin laser cannon turrets, which allow the freighter to provide an adequate defense against most fight craft, but many owners opt to upgrade these weapons; a task made easier by the ship's oversized power core. A central ventral turret on the bottom contains a pair of general purpose warhead launchers, which are officially present to enable the ship to launch sensor decoys and weather probes. More often than not, these launchers actually contain concussion missiles and other military-grade warheads in actual use. Despite these features, the stok LL-1200 is no better armed than a standard starfighter, but at a much larger size and with a lesser flight performance. Lucerne Labs officially recommends to its customers to avoid combat if at all possible.
A large portion of the early production run of LL-1200s was immediately slated to fill Lucerne Labs corporate fleet, but a portion were reserved for sale to private operators and Directorate allies. Consequently, LL-1200s have become a fairly common ship in Wild Space around Hast and tend to be less common the closer one gets to the Core. It is rumored that Gir Quee's private ship is a LL-1200.
Development Thread: No
Intent: To provide Lucerne Labs and the galaxy at large with another hot-roddable tramp freigher
Who Can Use This: Anyone
Primary Source: N/A
