The ship's boat is a small and versatile craft, often found in populous regions of the Imperium and its surrounds; its high M-drive makes it ideal as a VIP passenger transporter or executive shuttlecraft, transporting small priority cargos from surface to orbit and vice versa. These versatile craft are also designed with hostilities in mind and come with an engineered hardpoint, an empty triple missile turret and a missile magazine, and are routinely used as picket ships, customs cutters and as high speed rescue craft, or in some cases as small fuel lighters for a parent ship (when collapsible tanks are installed in the hold to complement the installed fuel scoops).

The craft shown on Page 10 of the T4 Starships book is shown with its fuel scoops ready for maintenance, the streamlined cowl removed revealing the scoop mechanism behind. The bright and garish colour scheme is an indication that it belongs to a belter community, who favour bright high visibility colours (flying eyesores) in low light deep space environments.

This vehicle as is common practice with most Imperial designs mounts a back-engineered tl-10 deep space thruster (virtually identical at Tl-9), as in previous discussions of common technology, discovery tech level is altogether different from the tech level requirements needed to actually manufacture the items.

Passenger accommodations consist of 6 acceleration couches to complement the pressurised interior and a single small cabin ideal for long duration missions, the couches are mounted in a small lounge, and can be swivelled to face each other to facilitate meetings/discussions etc, though in the event of an emergency the computer will override them to face the rear of the vehicle and hence minimise the likelihood of injury in a forward collision etc. More passenger space can be obtained at the expense of cargo or by removing the empty turret and associated magazine.

The small cargo hold is often customised to hold vehicles (yacht owners often do this) to allow the boat to ferry the item to and from its parent vessel. Passenger accommodations can be removed in order to increase cargo capacity.

Unsurprisingly this vessel is often found aboard deep space stations and serving scientific communities, and is commonly available for charter to private individuals (with or without crew) at most main-worlds. The crew detail is simply 1 x pilot, 1 x commander, though in a pinch the commander can be dispensed with.

Ship's Boat

Class: Small Craft.                       Ep Output: 1.8
Tech Level: 9                             Agility:0
Size: (small 30 Tons)                     Initiative: 0
Streamlining: Streamlined.                AC: 11
Jump Range: None                          Repulsors: None
Acceleration 6G (Thruster)                Nuclear Dampers: None
Fuel 1.8 Tons (Liquid Hydrogen)           Meson Screens: None
Duration: 4 weeks                         Black Globes: None
Crew: 2                                   AR: 0
Staterooms: none                          SI: 80
Small Cabins: 1                           Main Computer: Model 2
Bunks: 0                                  Sensor Range: Close (model 1)
Couches: 6 (additional to 2 on bridge)    Comm. Range: Close (model 1)
Low Berths: 0         
Cargo Space: 6 Tons                       Cost: Mcr 21.74 (Mcr 17.392 in 
Quantity)
Atmospheric speeds                        Noe= 275 kph
Cruising = 825 kph                        Maximum = 1100 kph

Other Equipment: Fuel Scoops. 

Design Worksheet.

Installed Component        Tonnage    MCR    Ep      Notes.

Hull                         +30        3.0     ----    Cylinder
Upgrade Streamlining        ----        0.51    ----    Fully Streamlined
Bridge                       6.0        0.15    ----    2 Acceleration Couches
Computer                     0.1        5.8     ----    Model 2
Avionics                     0.8       (1.8)    ----    Model 2
Sensors                      0.3       (0.6)    ----    Model 1
Commo                        0.2       (0.5)    ----    Model 1
M-Drive                      5.1        2.55    -1.8    6G Thruster
Power Plant                  2.7        8.1     +1.8    Fusion Tl-9
Fuel 4 weeks                 1.8        ----    ----    Liquid Hydrogen
Small Craft Couches          3.0        0.15    ----    6 Passengers
Hardpoint                   ----        0.1     ----    1 Hardpoint
1 Triple Turret              1.0        1.0     ----    Empty
1 Missile Magazine           1.0        0.1     ----    40 Missiles
Small cabin                  2.0        0.25    ----    1 cabin.
Fuel Scoops                 ----        0.03    ----    
Cargo                        6.0        ----    ----    

Totals                      30.0        21.74    1.8

Excess Power = None

Original T4 Design: Not Credited.

Design Adapted for T20, by Mark Bridgeman.

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