Mara D'Lessio Merrill
The Lesser D'Lessio
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To take advantage of new standards by making an unreliable but blisteringly quick hyperdrive for ORC.
- Image Source: “Scifi Console” by Gavin Saunders, found at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YYrNb
- Canon Link: N/A
- Primary Source: General balance adapted from MBE Superluminal Biodrive and tumble hyperdrive
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
- Manufacturer: Merrill-Valkner Systems Engineering
- Affiliation: Outer Rim Coalition members. Otherwise closed market (ask first).
- Model: MVSE Buckshot Tumbledrive
- Modularity: No
- Production: Mass-produced
- Material: Steristeel, advanced hyperdrive components
- Class-0.25 tumble hyperdrive
- Integrated class-12 backup
- Steristeel construction, which is very nice
- The Buckshot may not get where it's going, but wherever it gets, it'll get there quickly. At class 0.25, the Buckshot is eight times faster than a standard class 2 drive.
- The integrated backup drive allows for precision follow-up maneuvers in the extremely likely event that the Buckshot drops you into realspace a light-year away from your target.
- A Gemcutter sensor cannot determine exactly where a Buckshot-equipped vessel will revert.
- Tumble-drive inaccuracy means that you will absolutely revert early or late. Do not attempt precise jumps; you will never arrive in the perfect position. Ever.
- Along those lines, for the love of all that's holy, do not attempt to use the class-0.25 tumble hyperdrive for tactical microjumps. You have a high chance of getting hurt or, worse, looking stupid.
- Getting yanked out of hyperspace by interdiction will fry certain sensitive components, requiring days of repair while you limp around on your backup drive.
- Fleets and squadrons, no matter their level of coordination, WILL NOT arrive in formation.
When pre-Republic explorers used tumble hyperdrive technology, they picked a direction and took off, not knowing where along that line they would revert. This approach resulted in many lost ships.
Clearly, MVSE did not set out to build a tumble hyperdrive.
Experimental attempts to increase drive velocity, however, led them to conclude that a tumble-style 'margin of error’ might be viable. Imagine a line from planet A to planet B. A normal hyperdrive will go from A to B in a straightforward way. A classical tumble hyperdrive might deposit the ship anywhere along that line, or far beyond planet B. A ship with an MVSE Buckshot Tumbledrive will revert to realspace somewhere in the general area of B, with perhaps a few AU or light-years of shortfall or overshoot.
This is a very good drive on a big empty straightaway, such as a region of low stellar density between spiral arms. This is not the drive you want to use when navigating, say, the Deep Core or the Maw, where precision is all-important. As a result, many commanders opt to also install a secondary ‘normal’ hyperdrive, typically class 1-3, for finicky jumps.
