Hummingbird class Courier

Hummingbird class Courier
TBD
Type: XC Courier Ship
Category	[[ACS]]
Size	400 Tons
Hull Configuration	Lifting Body Hull
Streamlining	Lifting Body Hull
Tech Level	TL–15
Engineering
Computer	Model/9
Jump	J-3
Maneuver	6 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	4
Accommodations
Staterooms	0
Personnel
Crew	4
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	103 Tons
Fuel tank	0 Tons
Construction
Origin	Uncharted Space
Manufacturer	Various, original manufacturer unknown
Year Operational	999 (first encountered in Charted Space)
End of Service	Examples still operating post-Collapse.
Price
Cost	MCr387.16. MCr348.444 in quantity.
Architect fee	MCrAdrian Tymes
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile	KC-DL63
Images
Blueprint	Yes
Illustration	No
Source
Also see	Courier Ship
Canon	Published, fan design
Era	Third Imperium
Reference	EXTERNAL LINK: MGT Forums
Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions.

The Hummingbird class Courier closely approximates a courier ship.

• It is a civilian ship usable as an expensive scout ship, an inefficient armored trader, or a yacht.
• Its design sensibilities do not correspond to any known polity.

Description (Specifications)

This class of ship allegedly hails from a far-off sector that has never heard of the Third Imperium, and its design sensibilities lend credence to this claim. Aside from several interior peculiarities, the engines (both jump and maneuver) are in outrigger pods that can swivel, bracketing a cropped flying wing. This is typically the first thing people notice, and gives the Hummingbird a distinct sensor profile.

The original vessel was considered a Unique Ship, which the original owner exploited for its unique artifact technologies. The original owner is believed to have taken a TL-F world where he attempted to have the machine reverse-engineered. The naval architects were able to duplicate much of the original ship, but some of the technologies were not able to be duplicated. The plans became widespread and began to be copied without licensing fees to the original owner's dismay. The design is now fairly widespread throughout Charted Space, at least enough to have an entry in many ship computer libraries.

Between the regenerating life support, the repair drones, and the advanced software, there is almost no need for a crew, though not all the ship's software can be run at once. Typically, the virtual crew runs alongside one of anti-hijack, auto-repair, jump control, or intellect as appropriate. In battle, evade and fire control take over for a competent crew, though auto-repair can be swapped for fire control if necessary. Maneuver and library are always running.

The cargo bay is designed for 25-ton modules, fitted to standards few known ports provide; supposedly, this was a common size for weapons, base modules, and other such things where the original Hummingbird was from. In Charted Space, the bay will usually be filled with cargo, cargo and a single 50-ton module, or a single 100-ton module - just right for an advanced, size-reduced small or medium bay weapon, dedicated batteries charged from the ship's power plant (...or extra ammunition storage), and a stateroom for the gunners. Another common option is either vehicle garages or hangar bays, with barracks, an armory, and supplies. Aside from this, weapon and maneuver capabilities are comparable to military corvettes, pushing the limits of what can plausibly be claimed as anti-pirate defense.

Between the capabilities and the high price for its tonnage, a Hummingbird feels like a luxurious, alien noble's ship, intended to claim to be a freighter while actually running missions, using its cargo bay for mission-specific equipment. A close examination of stories of the first encounters with a Hummingbird suggest that is exactly what the first ship of this class was.

Even today, there are debates about the proper mission and type codes for this ship class. It could qualify as a type AA armored trader - it has jump-3, heavy armor, and a powerful particle barbette - but it is not very economically efficient. Many of its design principles would qualify it as a type K expedition ship, but the cargo capacity is a little high for that. It has good exploration capability but is not cheap, so it is not a type S scout vessel. Ultimately, the classification comes to what the first known Hummingbird pilot said a Hummingbird is: a courier. Couriers are classified as type XC.

Image Repository

Not available at this time.

General Description & Deck Plans

1. Deck Plans for this vessel. Note the longer lower deck: the back of the ship swoops down to a tail toward the bottom.
   

Basic Ship Characteristics

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. The small craft factor indicates the number of squadrons (...of ten subcraft) carried on the ship. Tonnage on the universal ship profile is shown in kilotons (...thousands of tons) where necessary.

Basic Ship Characteristics
No.	Category	Remarks
1.	Tonnage / Hull	Tonnage: 400 tons (standard). 5,600 cubic meters. Streamlined Lifting Body Hull. Dimensions: 25.5 meters long by 45 meters wide (24 meters wide not counting outrigger pods) by 7 meters tall (15 meters tall if outrigger pods are turned vertical).
2.	Crew	Crew: One each pilot, astrogator, engineer, and gunner. All but the engineer can be run from ship's computer.
3.	Performance	Acceleration: 6-G maneuver drive installed. Jump: 3.
4.	Electronics	Model/9 ship computer.
5.	Hardpoints	4 hardpoints, only 2 used.
6.	Armament	One dorsal particle accelerator barbette. Original had a longer barrel than standard; ones manufactured in Charted Space use standard models.
7.	Defenses	One point defense battery, mounted along the sides.
8.	Craft	None. Crew's vacc suits allow EVA (extra-vehicle activity). Rescue Balls for crew escape usually carried among examples manufactured in Charted Space; original was not so equipped.
9.	Fuel Treatment	It is typically equipped with a fuel purification plant and fuel scoops.
10.	Cost	MCr387.16 standard (...no architect's fees - while the design is not standard, blueprints are available). MCr348.444 in quantity.
11.	Construction Time	12 months standard. 10 months in quantity.
12.	Remarks	Blueprints on file are known to not fully capture the original design, but the blueprinted version can be manufactured by the highest technology level starports in the Third Imperium.

History & Background (Dossier)

The first encounter with this ship class took place in 999 on Sumeszu, where the jump flash suggested a misjump. Rescue crews found a lone, apparently (and unsurprisingly) disoriented human pilot. They were able to make contact through the transparent forward viewport, verbal communication being ineffective but managing to communicate through pictures the location of the highport and that they wanted the ship to go there. One of the crew stayed attached to the front like a limpet during the entire docking procedure, walking the pilot through docking procedures by gestures and pointing. After docking, the pilot got out of the ship, and the crew discovered why they had been unable to speak with her: she spoke no language known even in what linguistic databases were available. Fortunately, she had translation software that was eventually able to pick up Anglic.

Her ship's astronavigational database was presumed damaged, as the coordinates she gave for where she came from pointed into the Great Rift, to a location with no known habitable worlds. It was suspected she came from much further in that direction, possibly Provence Sector or coreward, as she had never heard of the Third Imperium or most of Charted Space.

After further dialogue, and a misadventure when one of her ship's repair drones got out and began scouting the highport without the pilot's knowledge (surprising and scaring a few arachnophobic crew), the pilot allowed the highport crew to thoroughly scan her ship to try to reproduce it. A lull in traffic allowed the shipyard crew to entirely focus on this project, finishing a prototype in only several months. The tales the pilot told of her home are improbable enough that they were initially filed as "Niikiik-Luur", or "false knowledge", but further examination has elevated them to "unlikely but not disproven".

Her claims about her ship were more credible. Supposedly, it was an evolution of the Q-ship concept: instead of just a secretly armed merchant, this was a transport where the entire cargo bay was often used for various mission-specific equipment while looking like it was just carrying cargo. It could fit missile and energy weapons, small fighter squadrons (6 per Hummingbird - 2 each in 3 25-ton modules, and another 25-ton stateroom and life support module - was apparently typical), survey and exploration gear, small invasion forces, or advance bases that could be quickly ejected once their destination was reached. (It was subsequently realized, based on her description, that these "advance bases" may have been nanotechnology weapons, able to manufacture an invasion force if they could just be smuggled onto a planet. A well-piloted Hummingbird is capable of evading mild levels of orbital interdiction.) The robot spider motif for the repair drones was reportedly cultural as well as functional; ones manufactured for subsequent Hummingbirds are not as intelligent as the original, but they do the job, and their shape has been captured into the blueprints well enough.

She was quite clear that hers was not the only Hummingbird where she came from. Certain other Hummingbirds - but not hers, she insisted - may have been used for slave transport, or at least for treatment of sophonts beneath steerage passage. On those Hummingbirds, it was standard practice to seal off engineering access and the side ramps, herd a large number of people (between 100 and 200) into the lower deck, and the crew luxuriate on the upper deck while the ship was in flight. Any mass uprising or sabotage attempt (...such as removing the panels or trying to break the engineering access seals) resulted in warnings being issued and the cargo bay doors starting to open, only closing when the objected-to activity ceased. Lone would-be saboteurs were often beaten to death by their fellow remaining passengers and then placed in an airlock for disposal. Rations were stored in the ship's locker and tossed down a briefly-unsealed ramp twice per day. Presumably communal freshers were installed for such voyages, but the cargo bay was thoroughly cleansed after each such trip.

Once she was satisfied with the quality of the reproduction, the pilot took her ship and left. News of an eccentric ship design spread. Here and there, examples - almost always one-offs - were manufactured by those desiring a distinct look. Most of those who commissioned one imagined a more dedicated mercantile or exploratory use, and were disappointed enough that most Hummingbirds became second-hand or even third-hand ships within their first decade. On the other hand, owners who appreciate and profit from a Hummingbird's flexibility - usually having access to different modules for different missions - have tended to keep their ships. In some sectors, it is popularly associated with hotshot smugglers who like to appear to be carrying one thing (or nothing) when in fact carrying something else, and have grown beyond ordinary smuggling components.

The number of Hummingbird sightings are rather more than the known construction examples can account for, suggesting that some have been constructed off the books or out in the Wilds. A common conspiracy theory - that the original Hummingbird had an artifact jump drive seems highly unlikely, as it would need to travel tens or even hundreds of parsecs per week to show up everywhere a Hummingbird has been seen (after removing known instances of subsequently-manufactured Hummingbirds). Some reports claim most of these (again excluding known subsequently-manufactured Hummingbirds) are the same pilot, having not visibly aged in over 100 years; if these are not just look-alikes or confused reports, that pilot would have had to be using anagathics for over a century as of 1105.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

No information yet available.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Civilian Ship - Courier Ship:

• Type XC Courier Ship
  • Hummingbird class Courier

References & Contributors (Sources)

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• EXTERNAL LINK: An Alphabet of Ships
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes