Astrapade

“If you’re riding aboard a Shemarrian ship by some happenstance and the Shemar show up, grab you, and look to be locking you inside a liquid-filled tank, or a conformal body cage braced to a wall, DON’T RESIST. You’re not being made a prisoner, it means that the Shemar are fixing to be doing some hard maneuvering. And I mean HARD. Shemarrian ships may look like bricks, some of them, but they maneuver like bucker-beasts with a red-hot slag-stick jammed up their asses. And they pulse their drives like nuke-pushers. You aren’t restrained, strapped, welded, or pillowed tight when the ship starts going through its paces, you’ll be lucky to wind up with half your bones unbroken, if not as blood paint on the walls.

Of course if the Shemarrians AREN’T going into battle maneuvers, you’re still better off not resisting, because they either already got your number...and it’s up...or the kinky ones just got you, and you’re better off not making them wait while they hunt you down again.”

## EShemar ‘Astrapade’ Aerospace Frigate

The Darkwaters Tribe, as the avowed ‘silent service’ and ‘space power’ of the Shemarrian Star Nation, is continually experimenting with new designs and upgrading its space capabilities, so it isn’t a surprise that the rest of the Three Galaxies has yet to see all the ship designs the Tribe deploys. The ‘Astrapade’ is one of several that have just recently been identified as belonging to the SSN, and specifically to the Darkwaters.

### Design

It is no coincidence that the Astrapade resembles an ancient prehistoric armored fish; the streamlined vessel is equally as capable of operation underwater as it is in space. This allows the Darkwaters to easily maintain regular contact with their DeepWatch branches, and to base their ships in concealment deep underwater.

Like most Shemarrian designs, the Astrapade is extremely fast, but it is also well protected and armored, the robust state of Shemarrian technology and their command economy allowing them to overbuild their ships without having to make performance choices based on economics. They are also slightly more stealthy than standard Shemarrian designs, owing to their hull configuration. Armament is heavy, consisting of a mix of lasers and particle beams, the latter of which are Darkwaters’ enhanced designs. Backing the direct-fire weapons are several batteries of cruise and medium-range missiles, and standard point defense arrays. Their only real shortcoming is a lack of embarked troops; despite having provision for four smaller craft, they lack the capability to deploy heavy boarding parties (even with the arguable relative power of individual Shemarrians).

As with almost all Shemarrian Star Nation designs, internal life support is threadbare and accommodations spartan by the standards of non-robotic/bionic lifeforms, the extra energy and space going to other, more important, systems.

Astrapades have thus far appeared only in the forces of the Darkwaters. They are frequently used as a raiders, patrollers, and escort craft.

## Abilities

### Sensors

#### Sonar

As with many Darkwater ships, they are equipped with a sonar with a 100 mile effective range.

### Special Systems

#### Sensor Baffling

The Shemar ships can partially mask their sensor spoor, making themselves difficult to detect at long range. This acts as Stealth (-80% to detect while stationary, -40% when moving)

### Weapons Systems

#### Particle Beam Cannon (3)

 Range2
 Damage
 Rate of Fire

Two are positioned to fire forward and the sides, while the third is mounted to cover the rear arc. The Astrapade will frequently make a banking firing pass, raking a target with the forward guns, then delivering a parting shot as it maneuvers away.

#### Medium Laser Cannon (5)

 Range2
 Damage
 Rate of Fire

Four of these weapons are positioned to fire to the front and sides, while the fifth covers the rear arc. These weapons also have a blue-green frequency mode for operation underwater.

#### Cruise Missile Launchers (2)

 Range2
 Damage
 Rate of Fire
 Payload

Anti-ship projectile weapons. Also used to launch decoy and recon drones. The Dark Waters are also working on enhanced stealth cruise missiles that can loiter like mines before lighting off their drives and hitting enemy vessels from unexpected quarters.

Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes (1 ton of cargo per 6 missiles).

#### Medium Range Missile Launchers (4)

 Range2
 Damage
 Rate of Fire
 Payload

Mounted laterally, typically used for self-defense/antimissile counterfire. As with the cruise missiles, the Darkwaters are working on a variety of instrumented probes, decoys, and stealth missiles.

Additional missiles can be carried as cargo and reloaded within
30 minutes.

Note: These launchers can also fire dual-mode rocket-propelled sea-air projectiles (a concept copied from the Kittani).

Bonuses: (Torpedo) Because of the torpedoes’ higher speed and advanced targeting systems, the U/AP doesn’t suffer the same range and accuracy penalties as conventional torpedoes. The U/AP has a +1 to strike, and a +3 to strike within 3,000 ft of the target.

(Missile) +3 to strike

#### Point Defense Turrets (6)

 Range2
 Damage
 Damage2
 Rate of Fire
 Payload

Standard Shemarrian-pattern rail gun/pulse laser combination in a common turret. These weapons are found on almost all Shemarrian ships. The dual laser and railgun pairing allows for good range, possible variant ammunition and alternatives for energy resistant targets.

Additional ammunition can be stored as cargo, but will take 45
minutes to reload from stores.

## Variants

### DwFR07B

Variant armed with gravitic slicer cannons in place of the particle beams.

Gravitic Slicer Cannon (3)

 Range2
 Damage
 Rate of Fire

On a critical hit, DOUBLE damage on an unmodified Natural 19-20.

### DwFR07C

Missile variant that loses all but one of the three particle beams, in favor of additional cruise missile launchers (identical in capacity and operation to those already integral to the design).