Rata
Overview
Section titled “Overview”The Rata was once a simple freighter. A massive ship with four massive main drives, built to haul ice, freight, whatever it took to build a colony. Those days are gone now. Every inch of the ship has been twisted, tweaked, and bent to serve the Rec Runner’s purpose: salvage.
The cargo bay has been completely rebuilt, optimized for scooping up whole ship components or even entire ships. There are small Runner-Pods, little ships for hauling heavy equipment into place or being used as autonomous thrusters to guide larger hauls.
A team of 50 salvagers and another 40 support crew run the ship. When they find a new wreck, they descend like a plague of locusts, stripping it of its valuables, breaking down hull plates so they’ll fit the cargo bay, devouring every inch of any ship.
Typical Uses/Mission
Section titled “Typical Uses/Mission”The Rata’s primary mission is salvage and recovery. On occasion they’ll transport freight or other heavy equipment.
On most missions, a Scout Crew will find a derelict ship, determine it’s safe to salvage, that it cannot be repaired and flown to port, and then call in the Rata. When the Rata arrives, its teams will descend to scan and then deconstruct the ship. It’s a game of Tetris on a massive scale, figuring out the ideal pattern to slice up and store the ship. Some missions will break it down into chunks while others will reduce it to piles of plate steel.
Features
Section titled “Features”Bot Systems
Section titled “Bot Systems”A series of bot systems support the salvage operations. There is a Bot Pilot, Bot Doctor, and a Bot Security System. The three of these monitor local space for dangers, monitor the crew’s health, and provide the best warnings/advice possible. The ship can fly itself if need be.
Crew Comfort
Section titled “Crew Comfort”Missions into the void are long, tedious, and boring. There needs to be something to keep everyone busy. This ship is their home away from home. Onboard amenities include a gym, above-average messhall, game rooms, and a full med suite with Surgi-Bot. Some of it is in various states of operation and disrepair, MUCH of it is equipment stolen off the ships they salvage.
Machine & Fab Shop
Section titled “Machine & Fab Shop”Tearing apart ships in the depths of space is more than just destruction. Fixtures sometimes need to be fabricated, custom tools made, specialized clamps to secure the load, or repairs to the main ship.
Flight Deck
Section titled “Flight Deck”The Runner-Pods are house in a small flight deck behind the main cargo bay. It’s a flight-through deck, with the pods and other light craft able to enter on one side of the ship and exit out the other. This section also doubles as a light-duty cargo deck and the main embarkation airlock for outgoing crews.
Cargo Deck
Section titled “Cargo Deck”The forward 60% of the ship is an open cargo deck. The walls are bare steel plate for mag-clamps to long down on. Several of the walls have recessed panels storing cranes and other equipment to manage and manipulate the load. In an emergency, the entire cargo section can be jettisoned, leaving the Ratta’s drive section as nimble as a corvette.
Armament
Section titled “Armament”The Ratta is primarily a Cargo ship but it’s not defenseless. This cargo is valuable and the Rec Runners know any low life will try to take it.
Active Countermeasures Suite
Section titled “Active Countermeasures Suite”Being a pack of Salvagers, the Rec Runners have stolen obtained the best in active counter measures from pirates, corporatists, and militaries alike. They have cutting edge decoys, radar jammers, laser jammers, chaff, flares, and more.
Point Defense Canons
Section titled “Point Defense Canons”The Rata’s main weapon is a set of 8 PDCs. These provide full coverage around the ship. They are an older design, but they’ll get the job done. Their main purpose is to shoot down missiles and deal damage in pure volume.
Torpedoes
Section titled “Torpedoes”The Rata does not carry torpedo launchers, but she has torpedoes. This comes as a surprise to her adversaries. There are racks of torpedoes on the flight deck and in the cargo deck. Another batch is mounted under the cargo deck’s outer hull panels. Essentially an entire rack can be jettisoned at once, being flung out of the ship, the rack will break up with its explosive bolts and scatter half a dozen torpedoes.
In a burst-launch config, dozens of torpedoes can be dropped in seconds.
They’re not top-end torpedoes. They’re a hodge-podge, but if they launch enough of them, their enemies won’t have enough PDCs.
There are plans to jettison the cargo module if necessary and use its torpedoes to create a massive bomb, though that’s a very much undesirable last-resort.
History
Section titled “History”The Rata was first commissioned as the Deep Space Hauerl 74. It was part of a massive fleet - so much so that they never bothered to correct the typo in its name. The ship was run hard and long, poorly maintained, and after 60 years of service it finally had a fatal breakdown.
A primary seal in the two of its reactors failed, the entire ship was flooded with radiation. Fleet Operations decided it wasn’t worth the expensive of recovery. They’d rather take the hit on their insurance and pay out some widows than try to save the ship. A proper recovery would mean operating it on half its power, dumping the cargo, and doing a full decon of the ship. Plus paying medical expenses. It was cheaper to pay death benefits.
For the Rec Runners, it was a steal. A salvage team arrived, scrubbed the ship, and brought it to port on the two surviving drives. Some major retrofits later and she joined the fleet under a new name: Rata.
For the first time in its life, this ship was well cared for.
A bright light snuffed out by broken promises, lies, and the general BS of life. He fled his home for a new life. It hasn't panned out yet, but it might.