NOMAD Supercarriers

Vessels Beyond Carriers

To represent vessels larger than the Carrier class, one can easily extend the progression based on the modifiers for ship parameters:

The GM may wish to slow or halt the progression of Armor and Guns and the decay of Agility if they go beyond this point. Even Cosmic civilizations have limits in material strength, weight, and firepower. Moreover higher armor values and more powerful guns will disadvantage PCs in conventional ships and slow down play, while the degradation of Agility will make those guns virtually useless.

Ships of the Sohl-Sargent Expanse

The following takes inspiration from the Classic Star Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver”. It uses more than a bit of handwavium because I didn’t want to deal with high numbers of Crew or Cargo Spaces.

Introduction

On February 6, 2525, the Stellar Alliance Explorer Endeavor exited hyperspace at the edge of the Sohl-Sargent Expanse. Contrary to long range observations indicating a nebula of diffuse but heavy matter, the ship observed an entire cluster of stars. The Alliance Science Service is still trying to reconcile the discrepancy.

Not long after beginning their scans, an octohedral ship whose hull consisted entirely of force fields approached the Endeavor, using no known means of propulsion. It broadcast messages in several archaic languages including Ancient Gray and Old Draconian that “trespassers” should leave the system immediately.

Captain Lara Constantine attempted to reason with the ship, but it opened fire. With the hyperdrive still in its recharge cycle, Constantine elected to return fire, unexpectedly crippling the ship. (Constantine’s captains’ log indicates it was more luck than skill or weakness in a clearly Cosmic Age vessel.)

Uncomfortably soon after, a mile-wide sphere, dubbed a Globe Patrol Ship by Alliance Intelligence, emerged from hyperspace near the Endeavor. The captain of this ship appeared to be a salamander-like being who seemed irate at the loss of the previous ship. After some fiddling with the Near-Universal Real-Time Translation System (NURTTS), Captain “Zhey-Soo-Shih” proved more amenable to discussion, and seemed very chatty about his ship and the “Stellar Union” of which he and the ship were representatives. He mentioned that not all their ships were this size; “support ships” were about a twelfth the patrol ship’s size, while a few ships in reserve were apparently twelve times bigger.

After a long conversation, the Patrol Ship sent a spherical “shuttle”. Captain Constantine left Commander Tal’yr in charge and boarded the shuttle, alone at her insistence. After relaying a few terse sub-vocalized messages through her communicator implant, her communicator went offline once the shuttle reached the patrol ship. She issued a brief order that the Patrol Ship would take the Endeavor to meet the beings in charge of this “Stellar Union”. The Patrol Ship then wrapped the Endeavor in giant tendrils and took off for parts unknown.

Before this event, Commander Tal’yr dropped an FTL Shuttle with all data the Endeavor had collected. This shuttle dropped an FTL Telegraph relay before heading back to the nearest Alliance forward base. It is through the efforts of this pilot, Lieutenant Leonard Campbell, that we have enough data on the incident to compile this report.

In a subsequent FTL Telegraph message via the Endeavor, Captain Constantine used a Situation Amber code phrase. The Alliance Exploration Service has begun preparations for a rescue mission, should one prove necessary.

Globe Patrol Ship

Globe Ships are near-perfect spheres that look grown, not manufactured. Their bluish-gray surfaces are punctuated by laser turrets that can point in any direction save through the ship, tendril-lined orifices that might be docking ports, and smaller ports that may launch torpedos. They possess no external thrusters; it’s likely they use a Cosmic Age “Gravity Drive” to move through space, in addition to a Cosmic Age FTL Drive.

Travel Multiplier: x0.75

Modifications: Advanced Organic Hull, Automation (Extreme), Close In Defense System (-1 Guns), FTL Engine, Force Field (14 hits), Gravity Drive, Repair Drones, Torpedo Launchers (14), Total Conversion (+1 Agility, +1 Travel Multiplier)

Cargo: See below.

Monthly Cost: Let the machine gobble up some asteroids and comets every so often.

Globe Shuttle

These craft are nearly spherical, with thrusters aft and an airlock hatch at the fore. They have no apparent viewports; it is likely they fly entirely on instruments. Their hulls seem to be the same material as the Globe Ships from which they come.

Travel Multiplier: x0.75

Modifications: Advanced Organic Hull, Automation (+1 Crew), Force Field (4 hits), FTL Engine (-1 Payload), Gravity Drive, Total Conversion (+1 Agility, +1 Travel Multiplier)

Monthly Cost: Reabsorbed by Globe Ship.

Globe Support Ship

This hypothesized vessel, based on Zhey-Soo-Shih’s offhanded remark, presumably resembles its larger kin.

Travel Multiplier: x0.75

Modifications: Advanced Organic Hull, Automation (Extreme), Close In Defense System (-1 Guns), Force Field (10 hits), FTL Engine (-1 Payload), Gravity Drive, Repair Drones, Torpedo Launchers (10), Total Conversion (+1 Agility, +1 Travel Multiplier)

Cargo: See below.

Monthly Cost: Let the machine gobble up some asteroids and comets every so often.

Special Rules for Globe Ships

Much of this information comes from Captain Zhey Soo Shih or assumptions by Alliance Intelligence, and may not be accurate.

Operations

The following pertains to Globe Patrol Ships, and presumably to Globe Support Ships.

• Only the Captain of each ship is a living being. The rest of the crew consists of robots (High S.I., unknown forms). Apparently, however, each ship maintains life support for an equivalent number of living beings.
  • Crew numbers are based on an estimate of life support capabilities.
• Each ship is made of very advanced biomechanical material. It can fabricate not only new shuttles and docking ports but robots, torpedoes, and any gear the Captain may desire.
  • Assume Cargo capacity reflects the amount of raw material.
  • Raw material, once fabricated and expended as torpedoes, is no longer available to the ship.
  • The ship must keep a minimum amount of raw material for robot crew, estimated at a quarter of a Cargo Space per robot.
• All robots belong to one of six subnets – Engineering, Gunnery, Piloting, Sensors, Torpedoes, and Internal Operations – and share a single “hive mind” within those subnets.
• Robots can transfer between subnets as necessary with only a small degredation of skill level. Each robot has Skill 2 in their primary function (Combat, Technical, Vehicles) and Skill 1 in two secondary functions (possibly including Social, Knowledge, or Physical).

The following applies only to shuttles.

• Shuttles are cramped, with only room for three humans. Passengers are, however, afforded with comfortable seats.
• Shuttles may have a single High S.I. robot as a pilot. The pilot of Captain Constantine’s shuttle looked “vaguely humanoid”, except for six fingers.
• The pilot sits on a “control throne” (Captain Constantine’s words) in the main cabin with a simulated 270° view of surrounding space.
• Controls lock out unauthorized users. (Constantine tried, briefly.)
• It’s possible the larger Globe Ships have similar controls.

It is likely that Globe Ships have some instantaneous faster-than-light communications with each other and with their central command. Since the Cluster is estimated to have a diameter of about 15 parsecs, this exceeds the limits of previously known Cosmic Age communication devices.

Combat

• Given what we know of the organization of robots in the ship, it is likely that the “crew” can take no more than five combat actions per combat round, perhaps only two or three.
• Because of their shape, size, mass, and lack of maneuverability, Globe Ships would attack smaller ships with torpedoes, not guns. They would tend to use their CIDS system against incoming torpedoes and ships.
• Attacks against Globe Patrol Ships have a +1D to hit due to their size and tendency to locate critical systems at their core.
• On a hit to a Globe Patrol Ship, roll the Damage Table with -1D. This reflects the number of decks between a Globe’s surface and its vital systems.
• Regular “Crew” hits statistically affect only the robots, since the Captain and guests reside on decks nearer the core of the ship.
• Critical “Crew” hits affect everyone, including a quarter of the robots. On the third hit, two random subnets are deactivated; on the fourth, all are.
• The turnaround time for refabricating fallen robots is unknown, but probably longer than a typical combat. Remember, though, the ship can repurpose existing robots at a degredation to collective skill.
• If the Captain is rendered unconscious or killed, a Globe Ship will take no actions save CIDS defense until it accepts a new Captain.

Globe Robots

While the exact form of the robots is unknown, we can hypothesize about their skill levels.

If significant numbers of robots are hit, take the highest skill level of the remaining subnets as the skill of the entire crew.