Category Archives: Space Ships

Drop Ships

Drop ships are gunboats designed to transport troops to other vessels and planetary surfaces more efficiently than outfitting a cruiser for atmospheric duty. More heavily armed versions are often used as patrol craft. Because of their short-distance service, they generally don’t get interstellar drives.

Galaxy’s Wings

An interstellar cruise ship and transport vessel, the Galaxy’s Wings offers a means of getting around the universe without purchasing an entire ship. The vessel is one of many in its corporation’s fleet. It offers numerous amenities, such as exercise and sports rooms, theaters, shopping, restaurants, and more. It has a strict schedule and visits only the most popular planets. This is partly for safety (it has minimal armaments and thus sticks to patrolled space) and partly for economic reasons.

Military Carrier

The carrier is a huge military vessel used to ferry sublight fighters via interstellar travel and to launch them into combat. The carrier’s flight compliment includes six squadrons of six fighters each. The carrier usually also holds four shuttlecraft for administrative duties or ship-to-shore travel (as carriers are too huge to operate within the atmosphere of a planet). Most carriers are not as heavily armed as their massive size would imply, instead devoting more space to hangar and launch facilities and entrusting their defense to the fighters they carry, as well as to the escort vessels that usually accompany the carrier in fleet operations.

Patrol Frigate

Primarily used by military or police organizations for patrol and anti-piracy operations, this small vessel has an 18-person crew that usually operates within a given patrol zone for two to three months at a time. Some other common names for this ship include customs frigate or interdictor.

Pirate Corsair

Pirate vessels come in all shapes and sizes. This example is fairly typical, being a refitted cargo vessel with much of the portage space being used for additional weapons and shields. Many of the components come from several black-market sources, making the typical pirate ship look like a ragtag collection of parts welded together.