"Deadly Packet" Variant

The Minsk from Neu Samara saw opportunity at Dryohetsyo, Fast Star station orbiting the Droyne world Uduxsyu. After making friends and contacts, establishing a presence in system to teach their youngsters Psionics, they headed home, destroyed the rare metals markets of Neu Samara in massive buy-outs, and returned to pay in barter for the commissioning of their first Jump 3 starship.

The Droyne of Uduxsyu hand build each craft to order and have no concept of standardized designs or mass production discounts. They do keep designs on file once built for further ship construction, always modifying if changes are deemed necessary by the Leader or Dreaming Technician caste droyne.

Since Neu Samara's only capable of building Jump 1 starships (1 parsec per week in an alternate dimension), and the nearest Terran colony world that can build Jump 2, currently earth's highest capability, is over 90 lightyears to coreward, the Minsk decided to commission the Droyne for ships before their government's diplomatic corps could move in and tie up the Droyne shipyards for years at a time.

The Droyne, for their part were happy to oblige when properly compensated, but still haven't figured out what the big deal is about their own, backsliding, ancient technology.

Working with the technicians and leaders of Fast Star, the Minsk managed to get across the design they wanted, and this is the result (though not painted in their livery yet). The core design, which is quite a bit less expensive to build, shaves off a good deal of the extra sensors, two staterooms, most of the weaponry, and the stealth systems to make a more conventional merchant vessel - something against which their first ship essentially is the Q-ship variant.

With this vessel, once built, they hope to explore further than Neu Samara's own scouts can keep up with, and maybe stake a claim, or colonize some world well outside the human government's sphere of influence. With the stripped down variants they'll commission after their first ship is finished, they plan to create a 2 way supply line for their intended mining operation on a gold-rich world a touch outside Neu Samaran industry's current reach.

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In addition to just being able to traverse interstellar distances faster, Jump 3 allows certain gaps to be bridged, allowing less 'having to go around' via long strings of out of the way stars having only a Jump 2 range sometimes requires.

With collapsible fuel tanks installed in the cargo bay, the Packet can double Jump 3 without having to refuel, allowing for all but the biggest gulfs to be leaped over, or alternatively, saving on refueling and refining time, which on a ship only capable of 1 G acceleration can add up to several extra days wasted in real space.

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This is the first of a series of three posts, showcasing this vessel and variants, modeled in Sketchup.