Ferric Class Free Trader

A basic free trader class designed by the General Development Company (GeDeCo) for use in the Trojan Reach.
The objective of the class was to stimulate inter-system trade, development and co-operation by producing a cheap and easily maintanable free trader for small-volume/tramp trading in goods and passengers between systems with low enough overheads to make such trade profitable. It also needed to be maintainable at the Tech Levels commonly found in the Trojan Reach.
The design parameters were:

• Capable of J-2, which is required to traverse the Dustbelt.
• Minimum 100 dTons of bulk cargo capacity, so that a meaningful amount of cargo can be carried.
• Built with TL-11 technology, to allow for easier servicing in the field. TL-11 is the minimum for a J-2 drive.
• Streamlined so that it can land on planets without highports or interface vehicles.

The GeDeCo design department was unable to fully reach all the design requirements - the power plant is a TL-12 MX-60A 60MW fusion plant from LSP. This is the only component that is higher than TL-11 however, and the high reliability reputation of the MX-60A meant that it was a compromise that was deemed acceptable.
The end product however is a ship that has a number of compromises that verge on flaws in some cases:

• Limited passenger space - there are only 6 standard staterooms and only 2 dTons of extra living spaces. Plus the bridge is very cramped as well. The official minimum recommended crew is 4, which only allows for 4 passenger staterooms with double occupancy, and the passenger staterooms are not separated from the crew staterooms, which increases hijack risk. Living conditions are cramped, and the crew will get on each other's nerves after a week in jump space. The assumption is that the crew will get a reasonable amount of shore-time while it picks up cargo between jumps. If the cargo hold isn't full however, spare space in the cargo hold can be used as basic extra living space.
• The ship is unarmoured and slow (M-1). It is armed as standard with two dual-turrets, one with twin-pulse lasers and one with a dual-missile launcher. In an engagement with pirates, its only options are to surrender, try and fight them off, or jump out of the system.
• There are no low berths or med bay, so Fast drug is the only option in the case of serious illness or injury.
• There is no interface craft, launch or lifeboat. One could be carrier as cargo in the cargo bay, but that would require decompressing the whoel cargo bay to vacuum to launch as there is no cargo airlock.

On the other hand, the craft does have some good points:

• There is 100 dTons of cargo space, which is remarkable for a 200 dTon starship (50% of internal capacity). This can make it much easier to hit profit margins.
• The drives and power plant are easily accessible via maintenance hatches internally and externally, which makes replacing a whole drive as easy as just removing some external panels and pulling the whole thing out.
• The main cargo doors open to the rear and include a ramp so that cargo can easily be loaded in the field, even on low class starports (or even in the absence of a starport at all.
• It's remarkably cheap at 39.2 MCr, and GeDeCo offer a good 50 year mortgage option for purchasers. The monthly maintenance payments are only 3,272 Cr, or under 33 Cr per ton of cargo space. This gives more headroom on the types of cargo that can be carried while still turning a profit. Note that the headline cost doesn't include software packages or weapons for the two turrets.
• It doesn't require a large crew - in fact you can probably get away with just a pilot/astrogator and an engineer at a pinch. This also keeps costs down.

Power Generation

1 Ling Standard Products MX-60A TL-12 Fusion Power plant, generating 60MW of power and occupying 4 dTons of space. This is contained in the starboard engineering nacelle.

Power Consumption

Component	Consumption
Gneeral systems & life support	40
Manoeuver drive	20
Jump drive	40
2 x turret operation	2
2 x pulse lasers	8

As can be seen, the Ferric class is very power constrained. Running the Jump drive or powering any weaponry requires the ship systems to be switched to essential systems only.

Propulsion

1 Torgee GH14-AX TL-9 Contragravitational Manouver drive, generating 1G of thrust and occupying 2 dTons of space. The X at the end of the model shows that this is the cut-down budget version of the popular GH14-A, which results in a restricted range of activity, which means the ship is unsuitable for deep-system operations. This is primarily located above the main cargo bay, and can be accessed/worked on by removing ceiling access panels (temporary working platforms can be clipped to the ceiling to facilitate this, or artificial gravity can be turned off in the cargo bay). Replacing the drive completely is relatively easy, and a common modification, to replace it with a GH14-A which will easily fit the same mounts.
2 Halwith MaxisJ14Z Jump Envelope Generators (3 dTons each) and 4 Halwith MaxisK7 10MW Jump Capacitor banks (2 dTons each) - 1 MaxisJ14Z in each engineering nacelle flanking the cargo bay, with 1 Jump Capacitor bank in the starboard nacelle, and the other 3 in the port nacelle. The Halwith MaxisDF14 Jump Governor (1 dTon) that controls these is in the port engineering nacelle. Jump drive allows for Jump-2 and occupies 15 dTons of space in total. Halwith is a subsidiary of GedeCo, and their drives are cheap, but don't have a particularly good reputation for reliability.

Manufacturer

General Development Company

Price

50 MCr

Rarity

Common

Complement / Crew

2-4

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

100 dTons of cargo. Up to 4 standard staterooms.