Lake class Surveillance Vessel

Lake class Surveillance Vessel
Type: S Explorer
Category	ACS
Size	9,789 Tons
Hull Configuration	Buffered Planetoid Hull
Streamlining	Unstreamlined Hull
Tech Level	TL–12
Engineering
Computer	Model 6/fib
Jump	J-2
Maneuver	1 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	80
Accommodations
Staterooms	125
Personnel
Crew	89
Marines	36
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	82 Tons
Fuel tank	4,405 Tons
Carried craft	3 200t couriers
Construction
Origin	Principality of Caledon
Price
Cost	MCr6,382.625
Architect fee	MCr63.826
Statistics
Universal Ship Profile	SV-J8215F2-371100-85000-0
Images
Blueprint	No
Illustration	No
Source
Canon	Unpublished, fan design
Designer	Mitchberg
Design System	High Guard
Era	1105
Reference	Fan: Mitchberg

The Lake class Surveillance Vessel is a TL–12reconnaissance starship and Surveillance Vessel. The Lake-class vessels provide covert "trip-wire" surveillance of the Principality of Caledon's frontiers.

Description

These vessels are designed for stealth, both electromagnetic and visual. They are buffered asteroids; great pains are taken to camouflage any man-made features on the surface of the asteroids, and to suppress any inadvertent electromagnetic emissions, so as to give the observer the impression they are merely a piece of floating space rock, if they notice it at all.

512 are currently in commission. They spend 60-day rotations watching the void areas on the periphery of the Principality. A typical mission involves:

1. . Jumping into a non-system area
2. . "Going Dark" - turning off all non-directional electromagnetic radiation, such as radios.
3. . Deploying one of the vessel's attached "Courier" ships. See "Couriers", below.
4. . Watching for signs of vessels jumping into the parsec for the next 60+ days.
   1. . If vessels are detected, observe and classify
   2. . If the vessels are deemed potentially hostile to the Principality, send a message to one of the vessel's attached courier ships, who will enact a jump to a pre-programmed nearby Caledonian navy facility.
5. . When relieved - usually after 60 days - jump back to base.

The surveillance ship will endeavor to remain undetected - usually successfully - and on station, to continue observing the area. If detected - this happens very rarely - they jump for their base rather than standing and fighting.

Couriers

Each Lake class ship has integral hangar space for three Courier ships - generally 100-200 ton vessels capable of jumping back to the home base. These vessels will usually rotate 2-7 day shifts as the "alert" courier. This involves moving under Maneuver power to a point far from the surveillance "mother" ship, programming a jump back to a designated Caledonian naval station.

If the mother ship's sensors detect an incursion, and the staff classifies the incursion as a threat to the Principality - anything from Reavers and pirates to a hostile fleet - the mother ship signals the alert courier with a directional laser link, downloading the surveillance ship skipper's situation report without alerting anyone. On completion, the courier launches its jump and disappears, giving the invaders' fleet only a jump flash to indicate anyone knows about them, far from the site of the actual surveillance ship.

Crew

In addition to the usual crew, the complement of sensor operators is relatively quite large.

Engineering

Jump 2, 1G Maneuver Drive, Power Plant 5

Avionics

Extensive sensors, especially passive jump-detection sensors.

Hardpoints

97

Armament

No offensive armament.

Defenses

Defensive and passive armament; dampers, lasers and sandcasters. The weaponry is focused on buying time to allow the vessel to "jump home" if discovered.

Craft

Hangars for three 200-ton couriers.

Fuel

Fuel for two Jump 2.

Cost

Varies with size

Construction time

150 weeks

Image Repository

No information yet available.

General Description & Deck Plans

SV-J8215F2-371100-85000-0   MCr. 6382.625	Size:	9,789 tons
Bearing       9     51	Crew:	89
Batteries     9     51	TL:	12
Cargo: 0.57 ton Closet Low: 6   Fuel: 4,405.05 tons   EP: 489.45	Agility:	1
Shipboard Security Detail: 10 Craft: 3 x 200T Couriers
Fuel Treatment:
Backups:
Substitutions:
Architect's Fee: MCr 63.826   Cost in Quantity: MCr 5,106.1

History & Background

Life on a "Lake Boat": Crews for surveillance ships are selected for their psychological stability and ability to keep their minds occupied and on task for long deployments. Officers and Warrant Officers are selected for coolness and steadiness under stress; the decision to jump out of a parsec or stay on station to continue observing can be a difficult one.

Surveillance ship duty involves long deployments - 60 days, usually twice a year, with occasional extensions (they don't leave station until relieved or until supplies run very low; sometimes relief is late); Lake-class ships carry a year's worth of food and supplies on every deployment, just in case. To make up for this, Lake Class ships offer some amenities to the crew:

The best food allowance in the Navy (along with excellent crew athletic and exercise facilities to ward off the effect of the food)

Surveillance ships are roomy; officers, warrants and ratings all have private staterooms; junior enlisted crew have doubles. Much extra room is allotted to recreation space

While fraternization between the sexes is prohibited in the Caledonian Navy, fraternization among surveillance ship crew members that are not in each others' chains of command while on patrol, provided it doesn't affect operational effectiveness enough for anyone to notice (including in terms of any family life while not on patrol) usually earns a blind eye. This is a prized perk, especially among crewman who've served on sloops, with their equally-long but much less relaxed deployments, and larger ships with more regimented schedules.

Many long lonely deployments punctuated by moments of pure terror.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

41 Representative Explorer (S) Classes

§ == ( Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information: ) == §

Type S Explorer

B

• Baso Rita class Small Survey Ship
• Brilliant class Scout

C

• Collective class Scout
• Covenanter class Scout Cruiser

E

• Elbing class Scout

F

• Fairmile Model G class Scout

G

• Golf Ball class VIP Transport Scout

H

• Highlander class Exploratory Merchant
• Hive class Scout
• Hraye class Scout

I

• Inquiring Mind class Fleet Scout
• Ithilien class Scoutship

K

• Kach'k class Scout
• Kanllaz class Scout

• KE2d Zerp class Scout
• KE3d Korsu class Fast Scout
• Keyhole class Observatory Ship
• Kforuzeng class Scout
• Kr'ghrr class Courier

L

• Lake class Surveillance Vessel
• Last Armada class Scout

M

• Machii class Scout Cruiser
• Model 225 class Scout
• Mont-SC class Scout

N

• Ninz class Scout

P

• Pallad class Asteroid Scout
• Pathfinder class Fleet Scout

Q

• Qasar class Scout Cruiser

S

• S-223 Moon Raven class Covert Surveillance Scout
• Silver Spur class Scout
• Sixth Horizon class Fast Far Scout
• SLC2 Ahouhi class Scout

T

• TC3 Perx class Scout
• Telemon class Survey Scout
• Type JL class Espionage Vessel
• Type S class Science Scout SICP

V

• Void Camera class Deep Space Scout

W

• Wrathful class War Scout

X

• Xero class Scout

Y

• Yono class Scout

Z

• Zydmnar class Scout

References

This article has metadata.

This ship was originally designed using one of the Classic Traveller ship design rules: Marc Miller. Starships (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 12-23. Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman. High Guard (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 20-36.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Author: Mitchberg