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| MASS: 34 NPV: 143 Classification: Fast Courier (AS) Crew: 15; 3 Officers, 12 Enlisted, plus up to 12 passengers if mission bay is configured for them. Crew Factor: 1 Hull Integrity: 6 (2/2/1/1) Armor: 0 Main Drive Thrust: 8 (13.6 TW) Drive Auto-Detection Range: 4.919 AU ∆V (Combat): 130.136 km/sec ∆V (Cruise): 2602.713 km/sec Thrust Points: 260 (944 tons propellant) Propellant Tanks: 10 Thrust Points per Tank: 26 FTL: Yes (Short Jump – 3.3 Parsec Range) Auxiliary Systems: 1-MASS Cargo Bay or 1-MASS Passenger Bay Combat Systems: None Weapons: 1x Point Defense Battery |
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| The Hermes fills an important role in
military and governmental logistics as a fast courier. As
interstellar communication in the absence of a Stargate is limited to
the speed at which starships can jump from one system to the next,
ships like the Hermes satisfy
a government’s need to rapidly transport information, vital personnel,
or small but critical cargoes in a minimum of time. The Hermes has a corvette class AMPLAR
torch drive packed into a Scout class hull, and its very high
propellant mass fraction allow it to make full Brachistochrone transits
at a constant 2.0 G acceleration to and from Jump Points at both the
origin and destination stars before refueling. This cuts down
transit times in many cases from months into mere weeks. Ships like the Hermes are very expensive to operate, and when conducting Brachistochrone transits can be very hard on both the crew and the drive torch. They have no spin habitats, as the typical high thrust transit will provide effective gravity throughout, and they lack armor or anything more powerful than a single point defense battery for combat. They are very much purpose built starships filling a very specialized role, and in most cases only a wealthy nation or megacorporation can afford to keep them. Privately run examples of a fast courier exist, but their rates border on the extortionary in order to make a profit. The SDC maintains a squadron of eight Hermes class fast couriers that remain on call in the Fury system, ready to travel with their news, vital cargo, or important personages on a moment’s notice to any location in Sagittarius. The discovery of the Dhaoghissi and the Quilah has prompted the AMC to call for their use on the frontier to provide early warning against raids and allow a counterattack squadron time to form up and deploy. At the moment such calls have been resisted in favor of their current status as emergency couriers from the core of human colonized Sagittarius out to the frontiers. Ships of the class
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