Directorate Officer
Image Source: Sato Dragon concept art modified by yours truly
Affiliation: Lucerne Labs, open market
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: LL-1400 Scoutship
Modularity: warheads, designed to easily accept aftermarket upgrades (generally requires separate submission per individual ship)
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel frame, Trimantium hull plating, ceraglass viewports, standard starship components
Classification: Scoutship
Length: 25 meters
Height: 5 meters
Width: 8 meters
Armament: Rating 12
2 Twin Laser Cannon Turrets
3 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers
Defense: 14
Squadron Count: 6
Special Features:
ANq-51 sensor array
Basic Warheads Countermeasure Launcher (10 Chaff bursts or 7 Flares)
Enhanced Communications Array (adds Hypercomm to standard starfighter-grade communication's package).
Sensor Beacon Launcher (12 Mark VI sensor beacons)
Standard Deflector Shield Generators
Standard Ion Engines
Standard Life Support Systems
Standard Navigational Systems
Standard Targeting Systems
Two escape pods
Can Enter Atmosphere and Land
Can carry 1 passenger and 30 metric tons of cargo
Manoeuvrability Rating: 5
Speed Rating: 5
Hyperdrive Class: 1 (x15 back-up)
Strengths:
Easily Modified and Repaired: Lucerne Labs carefully emulated CEC's YT-series of freighters in its interior architecture to ensure that the shuttle can be easily modified by its operators. To help ensure that its parts would be easily acquired anywhere. Not only is the shuttle 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.
Scout Package: The LL-1400 carries several systems specialized for use by scouts, including a powerful ANq-51 sensor array, a sensor beacon launcher, and a hypercomm to almost instantly communicate over long distances to home base. In addition, a good portion of the ship's internals is used to carry additional fuel, food, and other supplies for long journeys.
Weaknesses:
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.
Low Carrying Capacity: This ship has very little cargo space and passenger space for its size because of the scout package's components, enlarged fuel tanks, and increased consumables needed for long journeys.
Description: The LL-1400 is Lucerne Labs's scoutship entry for their new LL line, which is intended to provide highly adaptable and affordable starships in the vein of CEC's classic designs. The LL-1400 expands off of the LL-1300's base hull with an extended stern section for a more robust set of engines and increased supply storage. Sections of what was the passenger hold was converted to support the ship's extra scouting equipment. The resulting ship is a competitive starter scoutship.
The base starship is a reasonable mix of flight performance, defense, and firepower that is roughly comparable to that of a military gunship. But the LL-1400 trades some firepower for its scouting abilities. The foremost of these changes is a ventral mounted ANq-51 sensor array which provides a longer range scans than normal and automatically filters this data into the ship computer's mapping software. While this sensor array has good range to detect things from a distance, it does not have good fine detail resolution except at close ranges. If one of these objects required a detailed scan or continued observation, the LL-1400 will generally deploy one of its Mark VI sensor beacons. It's also not uncommon to see LL-1400s deploy them in a net around the space that they're scouting to act as an early warning system, especially if they opt to land. The LL-1400 does not carry specific equipment for surveying land, but most scouts use the ship's small cargo hold to carry thing like speeder bikes, probe droids, Minilabs, claim beacons, and the like. Like most other scoutships, the LL-1400 also contains extended consumables, including fuel, foodstuffs, and other basic supplies for long journeys, as well as an emergency back-up hyperdrive.
While a good general purpose scout craft, most experienced scouts further customize the stock model to their own needs. Mining prospectors often additional sensors, such as the 7000 geoscanner, to detect precious metals whereas someone interested in collecting biological specimens will modify the ship's cargo hold to hold their specimens and add subroutines to the ship's sensors to help discover different lifeforms. But explorers are not the sole users of the craft. Several have been seen in use by law enforcement agencies, such as the Sector Rangers, during their hunts for smugglers and small-time pirates.
Development Thread: No
Intent: To provide Lucerne Labs and the galaxy at large with a new scoutship
Who Can Use This: Anyone
Primary Source: N/A
