Jet Wasp class Corsair/meta
Jet Wasp class Corsair
This ship was first created using Mongoose Traveller Second Edition rules. Ship stats are presented below, with consent of the author.
Jet Wasp-class corsair, TL-15 Maintenance: 14,796 credits/month Crew: pilot, astrogator, engineer, gunner (omitting separate gunner for meson accelerator) MCr: 177.55 Excess power: 3 System___________________________________________tons__MCr____power Streamlined hull (80 hull points)________________-200__12_____40 Armor 2 (crystaliron)____________________________5_____1.2____0 Jump-2 drive (3*reduced fuel)____________________15____33.75__40 Thrust-5 maneuver drive (3*energy efficient)_____10____30_____25 Fusion reactor___________________________________4.75__9.5____-95 Fuel (jump-2 + 4 weeks' operation)_______________35____0______0 Fuel processors (20 tons/day)____________________1_____0.05___1 Fuel scoop (from streamlining)___________________0_____0______0 Bridge w/holographic controls____________________10____1.25___0 Computer/35______________________________________0_____30_____0 Internal (fixed) mount meson accelerator_________60____20.1___0 Small ion cannon bay (long range, size reduced)__40____22.5___20 2 staterooms_____________________________________8_____1______0 Common area______________________________________2_____0.2____0 Forced linkage apparatus_________________________2_____0.5____0 Advanced sensors_________________________________5_____5.3____6 Cargo____________________________________________2.25__0______0 Software: library________________________________0_____0______0 Software: maneuver/0_____________________________0_____0______0 Software: jump control/2_________________________0_____0.2____0 Software: fire control/5_________________________0_____10_____0
The robot prize crew can be modeled as astromech droids reprogrammed with Engineer (Jump) and Intrusion software, which are carried as cargo until needed. The target ships can be easily remote-piloted to 100 planetary diameters and then jumped; upon arrival at the target world, a pilot can fly out to bring the prize into the starport.
The meson accelerator comes from Central Supply Catalogue page 131. Most importantly, its range is 150 meters, well within the Adjacent range band in space combat. By the time a Jet Wasp is close enough to fire this, its sensors should have no problem finding and providing target locks on all organic brains on board the target. The gunner's challenge i to keep the ion cannon hitting the target every round, dealing enough power damage to keep the target from powering up weapons or basic ship systems (so as to comm out a warning about what is happening, alerting everyone in the system to the Jet Wasp's presence, which usually forces the Jet Wasp to run away ASAP - possibly after dealing with the current target, but often leaving no time for that).
The Jewel Wasp was an attempt to get around the limited number of hardpoints: both of its hardpoints were ion cannon bays, and it also carried a meson accelerator completely internally, essentially as cargo. Upon further discussion and reflection, this arrangement did not work very well (and arguably violated the rules), thus the Jet Wasp redesign.