Iron Worm class Interceptor
| Iron Worm class Interceptor | |
|---|---|
 A reusable missile, in theory. | |
| Type: UDQ Combat Drone | |
| Category | Smallcraft |
| Size | 10 Tons |
| Hull Configuration | Cylinder Hull |
| Streamlining | Partially Streamlined Hull |
| Tech Level | TL–12 |
| Engineering | |
| Computer | Model/1 |
| Jump | J-0 |
| Maneuver | 15 G |
| Armaments | |
| Hardpoints | 0 |
| Accommodations | |
| Staterooms | 0 |
| Personnel | |
| Crew | 0 |
| High/Mid Passengers | 0 |
| Payload | |
| Cargo | 0.3 Tons |
| Fuel tank | 0 Tons |
| Construction | |
| Origin | Terran Confederation |
| Manufacturer | various |
| Year Operational | -2395 |
| End of Service | Examples still in service post-Collapse |
| Price | |
| Cost | MCr5.6225. MCr5.06025 in quantity. |
| Architect fee | MCrAdrian Tymes |
| Statistics | |
| Quick Ship Profile | UDQ-1PF0 |
| Images | |
| Blueprint | Yes |
| Illustration | No |
| Source | |
| Also see | Fighter |
| Canon | Published, fan design |
| Era | Interstellar Wars |
| Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions. | |
The Iron Worm class Interceptor is a combatant smallcraft.
- It is a military ship and a Combat Drone, though it acts like a missile.
Description (Specifications)[edit]
The Iron Worm is a case study in ideas not always working out.
A 10-ton smallcraft drone, an Iron Worm's front section is a classic cylindrical hull with a spherical front containing a laser drill turret. Its back breaks into four articulated legs (two pairs on either side of the two reaction drive exhaust nozzles), ending in feet with four grapnel-like toes, which can reach into a small internal cargo space that may be packed with ordnance and/or used to store choice salvage. Between a substantial reaction drive and a modest maneuver drive, it is intended to close fast on a target spaceship, forcibly dock, drill through the armor, and destroy a ship from within.
It can move fast. Once it is inside a ship, that ship is generally doomed, as an Iron Worm's armor can shrug off any personal weapon short of a FGMP, the ship's own weapons can not fire at coordinates within the ship, and any escorts have to punch through the ship's armor and hull to hit the Iron Worm. An Iron Worm is usually programmed to make a beeline (vaporizing the ship's insides - decks, crew, and anything else in its way - with its laser drill and maneuvering using a combination of its legs and maneuver drive) for a target's power plant to disable it quickly, afterward proceeding to general destruction of everything inside the hull (save for any other Iron Worms with the right identifier beacon) until it is recalled or assigned another target. Docking is where the complications set in.
Even with the best equipment available at TL-10, an Iron Worm usually struggles to secure a perch if the enemy pilot is competent and at the controls. Without a solid perch, the Iron Worm's laser drill can inflict some damage but can not steady enough to punch a hole wide enough for the Iron Worm to enter through. (Popular media depictions aside, viewports are generally too small to smash through, and hangar bay doors often have bulkheads that can shut behind them precisely because they are more vulnerable to breaches.)
While the armor that the Iron Worm is named for is thick enough to shrug off beam lasers, a well-aimed hit by pulse lasers or most any hit from a barbette will take out an Iron Worm. (The weakest point is the cargo hatch between the legs. Shots through there will either hit the fuel tank or, if the tank is mostly empty, the power plant.) Competent gunners can often manage such a shot between the time the Iron Worm pulls into docking range and when it can secure a perch - often, but not always, especially when faced with a large swarm of Iron Worms.
That said, when docking can be managed (often requiring some sort of ambush), the results can be devastating - and quite demoralizing to any crew onboard, who typically abandon ship if they have no way to fight. Those who can neither leave nor fight back face the prospect of waiting, possibly hours or days for a large ship, for the mechanical parasite to get around to whatever part of the ship they are in and vaporize them. There is one documented case of an Iron Worm being launched at an unsuspecting Titan class Super Dreadnought. The Iron Worm latched on as the crew was being alerted to the threat, after which ensued a week-long battle that destroyed half of the million ton Titan's interior, only stopping when the Iron Worm finally ran out of fuel, after which what remained of the Titan was broken up for spare parts. For just shy of MCr6, an asset costing over MCr1,000,000 was permanently taken out of service.
More often, when an Iron Worm is successful, it is able to return to whatever launched it. Operationally, it is often used like a missile, launched in swarms at a target - but with the potential for some or all of the swarm to return, greatly reducing the logistical tail associated with missiles when it works.
Image Repository[edit]
Not available at this time.
General Description & Deck Plans[edit]
- Deck Plans for this vessel.
Basic Ship Characteristics[edit]
Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here [1]
| Basic Ship Characteristics [2] | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Category | Remarks |
| 1. | Tonnage / Hull | Tonnage: 10 tons (standard). 140 cubic meters. Cylinder Hull with rounded front and irregular rear (reducing streamlining to partial).
|
| 2. | Crew | Crew: none (all virtual). |
| 3. | Performance | Acceleration: 3-G maneuver drive and 12-G reaction drive installed, for a total of 15-G.
|
| 4. | Electronics | Model/1. |
| 5. | Hardpoints | 1 firmpoint, no hardpoints. |
| 6. | Armament | 1 turret-mounted laser drill. |
| 7. | Defenses | None, aside from their speed and agility. |
| 8. | Craft | None (not counting itself). With no crew, neither Vacc suits nor Rescue Balls are normally aboard. |
| 9. | Fuel Treatment | It is not equipped with a fuel purification plant or fuel scoops. |
| 10. | Cost | MCr5.6225 (no architect's fees, those having long since been paid). MCr5.06025 in quantity. |
| 11. | Construction Time | 6 days standard, 4 in quantity. |
| 12. | Remarks | A Combat Drone that "intercepts" enemy craft by burrowing into them, intended as anti-capital ship. |
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
Between the First Interstellar War and the Second Interstellar War, the Terran Confederation developed many concepts for new weapons. The Iron Worm was among them. Although it met with some initial success, it fell out of favor before the Rule of Man: missiles were simpler and destroyed their targets faster, and Iron Worms came to be seen as a terror weapon more than a ship destroyer. Officially, they were classified as obsolete, and retired on that basis. (At the time it was labeled an Interceptor. That term is still used as part of the class name, even though these days "interceptor" more often refers to a type of crewed fighter.)
However, the design had technically worked, and as such was archived. It was likely reused at points during the Long Night, though historical records are spotty. The design is known to have been placed into production on certain worlds in 989 in the ramp up to the Solomani Rim War. Some of these Iron Worms wound up in the hands of pirates who took them to Hinterworlds Sector.
From there the design spread, often used to ambush system defense boats and capital ships of minor polities and unaligned worlds. Eventually it reached the Lords of Thunder, who invented a claim that it was an old K'kree design of robotic fighter. Few besides the K'kree believed this claim, but a few fleets - especially those facing opponents with capital ships - began using it. As of 1105 it has yet to cross the border and enter service with the Two Thousand Worlds.
Meanwhile, Iron Worms remained in occasional production on TL 10 worlds of the Solomani Confederation even after the war, often used for raiding beyond the Confederation's borders much like the pirates. (Indeed, in many cases there was no practical difference.)
Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities[edit]
Iron Worms, being closer in purpose to missiles than smallcraft, only receive individual names in extremely rare circumstances. When they do, those circumstances dictate the nature of the name.
Selected Variant Types & Classes[edit]
Military Ship - Utility Craft - Drone:
References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
| This article has metadata. |
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This ship was designed using Mongoose 2nd ship design rules.
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- Matthew Sprange. High Guard (Mongoose Publishing, 2016), 8-22. (Design Sequence Used)
- Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes
- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.
- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.